Report on the Junior Cup final, held at Chester Road, Kidderminster, Tuesday 16th July 2019,
by Nic Harvey
It is a privilege to play at Chester Road and for £50 value for money. Everything is laid out ready thanks to Chris Longmore. A pink ball final, we are moving with the times.
A pleasant evening, high cloud, gentle breeze, with the late sun warming the 50 or so spectators.
What catches the eye?
The throwing arm from the boundary – something that disappears with age.
The time spent retrieving the balls from beyond the boundary rope (minutes each occasion) and relaying it back to the bowler. The delay was even longer when crawling fielders played hide and seek under the covers!
The incoming batsmen’s display of crouching, cradling bat rolls and high lift running on the spot. This was a competition on its own.
But the major event was the salmon imitations. What a sight! At the first sign of the speeding ball the leap was prepared. Was it the height, the distance or the roll? Whether the ball was collected seemed immaterial. Perhaps not as exciting as Lords but, certainly entertaining.
What about the game: Alveley v Stone
Alveley took to the field after a minute silence in memory of Keith Amer RIP, umpire.
As they say, it was a game of two halves. Both teams batted cautiously for half of their overs with the score within one run of each other with Alveley losing more wickets. Stone through the dominance of their opening bat were able to accelerate doubling their scoring rate whilst their opponents, fully committed found singles more plentiful than boundaries, although gallantly mustering the game’s only six and a clutch of threes, eventually falling 27 runs short.
The evening presented the usual bouquet of wides, slapped boundaries with just the occasional pleasing drive with the batters happier with pace than the slow, very slow mesmerising high floaters.
The batting of R. Cooper (Stone) 86 runs, earned him the man of the match award.
Another pleasant evening spent at Chester Road.
