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1998 Cricket Tour of West Sussex - Day 4
Day Four - Thursday 6th August
The final day promised to be the day when some proper cricket might be played against Horsham on their superb ground.
If Mark Reynolds had a plan for today's match he wasn't letting on but in any case Captain of the day Paul Tovey would have ignored it.
The lads were in high spirits when Paul announced that today's match would be a straight 45 overs a side game. The cheers could be heard back in Sodbury, a real game at last!
The question was could Clappy get his first wicket of the tour?
Another hot day of cricket
On a boiling hot day it was no surprise that the opposition decided to bat first, going against all the traditions of tourist cricket, but no matter.
Steve Clapp opened the bowling with George Blakemore who was very economical. Although Steve had not got any wickets to date, he too had bowled very economically so far. However, all this was to change.
The Wicket
What everyone had been waiting for finally happened in Steve's 7th over when A Simmons (no, not "Reggie", this guy played for the opposition) was caught by Paul Tovey. The relief on Steve's face was a picture...which was short lived as he continued to be panned around the Horsham ground.
Clappy's final figures were 9-1-56-1 whilst George was much more economical with 9-4-18-1. Craig Scully got smashed around later in the innings with figures of 3-0-25-1. Both Rob Wakefield and Paul Tovey ended up with a wicket a piece whilst Malcolm's figures were 9-0-33-2.
The Horsham innings ended on 194-7, a score well within the reach of the Sodbury batsmen if they weren't too intoxicated.
A Pacey Start
Paul and Dave Reynolds opened the batting but the scoring rate was pathetic. Dave was eventually out for 3 in the 11th over (yes 3 in 11, its not a misprint) whilst Paul managed to hang it out until the 22nd over when he was dismissed for 32.
The highlight of the innings was provided by Mark Williams when he played no less than four forward defensive shots in one over, which even Geoff Boycott would have been proud of, before being out for 56 (no jug evasion this time either).
George played an excellent supporting roll to Mark before being bowled for 18. Rob Fowler (25) continued the good work but it was left to Rob Wakefield and captain Paul Tovey to take us passed the Horsham total with 3 wickets and 3 overs to spare.
We had recorded our second win of the tour (fourth if you count the moral victories in the two other games).
Note in Scorebook - Day Four
The comment in the scorebook read "WE'VE ONLY GONE AND WON IT!!! (BY 3 WKTS)".
- Pretending to know about wines in a wine bar when drunk
- Appalling chat up line
- Wine tasting on tour
- Giving away business card on tour
- Interfering with a sleeping man
- Slimey chat up line whilst sober
- Falling down bowling technique
- Coco the clown fielding
- Coco the clown umpiring
- Mooing
- Chatting up taxi driver with standard line
- Four helmets meeting in the middle of the wicket
- Setting up someone for a kicking from a married bird's bloke
- Telling bouncer real age to eliminate all possibility of entrance
- Dropping a chair on God's knee
- Leaving the fines book behind
- David Baileyism
- Fruit machine addiction
- Being Fletch
- Ironing on tour
- Pulling a married bird
- Everyone for not having toured for 13 years
Fines of the day were :-
The final Dead Ants of the tour was called in the shower after the match and caught Mark Williams in no position to defend himself.
The 1998 tour of West Sussex was over, but will last in the memories of those who took part for a long time to come.
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