Ruthless twos extend their lead at the top

With memories of relegation last year fresh in Skipper Alex Tryfonos mind, on what would have been a lovely afternoon for batting, Greek ruthlessly chose to bowl against 7th placed West United. This was even though the opposition were missing a number of players from the side who ran Bedminster so close earlier in the season.

James Duckworth struck with his very first ball, as the left handed opening batsmen managed to drag what could have been a wide on to his stumps. Ducky followed that up with another wicket, this time lbw with his very next ball. There was no hat-trick though with the number four playing and missing at a ball wide of the stumps. Sam Knapp opened from the other end and built pressure, whilst Duckworth attacked. Another wicket came for Duckworth during his best return of the season. Despite taking 3 for 15, the perennially unlucky Duckworth was unhappy with the number of wides he bowled and chuntered consistently through his spell. Lewis Mason replaced Duckworth in the 13th over and struck quickly to leave West United reeling at 20-4.

With four wickets down for not many runs, with two batsmen out bowled, one lbw and one caught behind the Greek Brearly decided it was clearly time to bounce the opposition out. The trap was set, with two men out on the leg side and Knapp instructed to bowl half way down. What followed was a number of edges, pulls and cuts some timed well, others less so, as the batsmen felt there stumps weren’t being threatened anymore on a slow pitch. A partnership began to form as this tactic was employed, until Knapp’s effort ball struck a nasty blow on the un-helmeted batsmen’s neck. Much to everyone’s relief, this prompted Knappy to try and bowl at the stumps and he was duly rewarded with two wickets, both bowled.

With the opposition now 6 wickets down, Greek was relieved that Knapp had finished his spell and he could now get the most promising cricketer in the world, his son, a bowl. Max started well, gaining a wicket caught behind in his first over. Mason continued bowling well at the other end mixing his pace up and deceiving the batsmen as he claimed two more wickets to finish with 3-17. Max then finished the innings off with an lbw he didn’t even appeal for and later claimed he didn’t think would have hit a second set of stumps. West United had been bowled out for 72 in only 23.2 overs.

After having made a horrific misfield in what was a generally good performance in the field, Harrison Newman made his second biggest contribution to the game, commenting that it would be torture to watch Greek and Roche bat 44 overs to score 73.

After briefly worrying that Max might not get a bat, Greek reasoned that it was worse for him to miss out on an opportunity for red ink as he chose to open the innings. At the top of the order he was joined by Simon Roche, who was back from his exile in the threes. Together the pair batted like the tortoise and the other tortoise as they bored team mates, the opposition and spectators alike en route to scoring the 73 required for victory in 14.4 overs. Roche with 30 not out outscored Tryfonos (25 not out), who is well known to bat within himself when searching for red ink.

As he walked off the field with another haul of 30 points, skipper Tryfonos, wondered if he had thrown away a potential hundred and ruined what was a good day for cricket by not batting first. He instantly thought better of it, as he remembered how few and far between 30 points were last year.