Lilley produced a champagne bowling finish to the season only to be un-done by a babysham batting debacle which saw them bundled out on a decent track for just 80.
Lilley were put in the field and lined with a weaker bowling attack than has been the case on many other Sundays this year. None-the-less, the pressure was on straight away, with Ashby bagging wickets with consecutive balls and Gareth Tompkins bowling his socks off at the other end to finish with 2-21 from 12 overs. GT should have had a lot more and had at least two chances put down off his bowling.
Ashby was replaced after seven overs by Taz Qureshi, bowling leg spin this week after a week behind the stumps. Taz picked up two more wickets to add to his decent season’s tally, although he was expensive, going for 44 runs in nine overs.
Steve Eyres, hot off his 5 wicket haul last week, polished off a fine end to the season with the ball, bagging 4 wickets in 19 deliveries to skittle Flamstead for just 106 on a good track.
Lilley’s batting got off to a stinker, Doug Tomsett dragging on for just 4 and Steve Eyres followed soon after, also for four. Ashby and Brad Tompkins temporarily steadied the ship, taking Lilley to 32-2, before the skipper became the second of what be five wickets for bowler Wilkinson, who bagged 5-20 from 15 miserly overs. Younger brother Gareth departed for a duck, but Phil Horner (18) and Brad looked to be guiding Lilley home with a good partnership. Tompkins’ departure with the Lilley score on 52 though to a ball which flew up out of nowhere was the turning point, Horner following soon after and despite some fine strokes from Stew Collinson (11) and one from Mik Carman (4), Lilley crumbled to 80 all out, 27 runs shy of victory.
Not the best finish to the season, but it has been an absolutely brilliant summer all in all. The weather has been fabulous and I’ve had a full and quality eleven almost every week, which has been great. Thank you everyone who has played and helped me out this year, notably Mik Carman (Vice) and Steve Eyres (Vice Vice) who have helped a lot behind the scenes.
