A narrow loss and bees stop play

Pleased to be back at home after 2 weeks on the road, the 2nd XI welcomed Spencer to Woodfield Lane. Stand in captain Michael Sanderson won the toss and elected to field. Henry Elburn took the first wicket, James Smith lbw for 15, but then Freddie Horler and Simon McConnell piled on the pressure. With the Ashtead bowlers failing to make a break through Horler and McConnell put together a 92 run partnership before Horler was finally out for an impressive 70, lbw to Amir Akbarali with the score on 123.

McConnell fell 4 runs later for 33, caught Akbarali off the bowling of Gary Martin (the 7th bowler that the Stags would use). Amartya Kaul and Mahad Ikram put up some resistance for Spencer until a mis-communication left Kaul stranded out of his crease and some quick fielding from Sanderson and Marcus Caprano-Wint had him easily run out. Jake Martin’s welcome return from injury was rewarded in the 40th over as Spencer captain Abid Jafri went for a duck – a family affair caught Gary Martin and Spencer had reached 155-5.

Ikram stayed doggedly at the crease and together with Phil Cummings notched up a partnership of 33 before Cummings before Cummings was bowled by Caprano-Wint for 22 in the 47th over. Another 2 cheap wickets for Caprano-Wint left him with 3-35 and Elburn captured the stubborn Ikram for 32 in the 50th over. Spencer had set a decent, but what should have been a perfectly achievable, target of 204.
The most unusual event of the first innings was in the 26th over when every player was suddenly seen to hit the ground and lie flat as if ducking for a low flying aircraft – in practice a swarm of bees passing by!

Tea was taken and the Stags openers Gary Martin and Michael Sanderson set off at a slow but steady pace until Sanderson was bowled by Jafri for 23 in the 11th over. Kamran Mirza came, hit three tidy fours and then holed out, caught Ikram off the first ball of Cameron Ponsonby’s bowling. Martin and Jordan Nichols then put up a 47 run partnership before Nichols was bowled by Babar Hussain for 26 in the 27th over with the score on 98 and the target still looked achievable.

Unfortunately three cheap wickets plus that of Gary Martin, bowled for 39 (off more balls than it would be polite to mention), and suddenly Ashtead found themselves at 121-7, needing 84 runs off 11 overs with only 4 wickets remaining. Akbarali was batting with intent, but his partners were running out and it wasn’t until Elburn came to the crease that the pair of them rose to the challenge. Balls were hit with urgent determination around the ground and for a moment the home team could almost hope for victory. Unfortunately with Elburn succumbing to the bowling of Jafri for 24 (including 2 fours and a six) in the 49th over followed by Akbarali for 36 in the 50th it was all a little too late and Ashtead fell short of the target by just 15 runs. Hussain was the pick of the Spencer bowling, finishing with 5-22.