LILLEY (167 all out, Qureshi 68) beat Totternhoe (67 all out, Hammond 4-20) by 100 runs
Lilley’s 2004 mid season revival continued at Totternhoe today, thanks to Taz Qureshi’s second half century in as many weeks.
Lilley were put into bat in a ‘time’ fixture and Doug Tomsett and Tim Perry set the ball rolling nicely, stroking the ball around with apparent ease. Perry notably hit some searing strokes, straight and through the off side, on his way to 25. He fell, bowled, with the team score on 43 – and it soon became apparent that the wicket was behaving far more suspiciously than had first looked! Brad Tompkins went to his very first ball, clipping the delivery right out of the middle and to the waiting fieldsman on the on side. Last week’s half centurion Qureshi joined Tomsett at the crease and the pair put on 41 for the third wicket before Doug was bogged down and frustrated by the uneven wicket, eventually snicking to the slips for 14.
The Lilley skipper Ashby joined Taz and seemed to be dusting off the cobwebs which have covered his 2004 season, that was until he lofted a chance to deep mid wicket for 9, leaving Lilley 114-4. Qureshi continued on his merry way and seemed to make scoring runs look much easier than his colleagues. He soon got bogged down by straight bowling on an interesting wicket, but Ken Hammond appeared to be getting hold of the home attack. Taz eventually registered his half century having being stuck on 49 for some time with another four, however Hammond perished shortly after for 18.
Qureshi hit ten fours in his innings, which was next to be ended, for 68, caught. The knock would prove to be pivotal however in a few hours time, and he richly deserved the applause he received for his third half century of the year and best score for Lilley.
Philo Clarke got a peach of a shooter from the wicket, almost rolling along the floor and Stew Collinson followed shortly after for just one, sadly tweaking the knee injury which had kept him out in recent weeks in the process. If Philo’s delivery was bad, Dave Carman’s return to his old stomping ground was met with a ball that shot so low, it may as well have gone underground! With just Paddington for support, Gareth Tompkins tried to hammer the ball back to Lilley, sadly missing and being bowled for 6, leaving Lilley 167 all out.
You had to fancy Lilley’s pace attack on a wicket such as this and there was no surprise to see Ashby and Gareth Tompkins beating the bat regularly early on. Ashby picked up two early breakthroughs, uprooting opener Smy’s middle stump and then bowling fellow opener Stainsby with the score on just 15. GT joined the fun, nabbing a caught and bowled before being replaced by Ken Hammond. Hammond has bowled well this year, but he picked up a wicket in the most embarrassing circumstances with his first delivery of the afternoon, chucking a wide leg side full toss down at around 4 mph which the batsman spooned straight to Craig Paddington at mid wicket. He went on to grab another in the over, bowled, before inducing an edge from Hill to Ashby at first slip to make it three. Tim Perry replaced the skipper from the so called downhill end (although if you listened to TP, it sounded like it was bowling from the top of Snowdon with a force 9 gale behind you..), and bowled a hostile and pacey 4 over spell. He picked up three wickets in quick succession, two bowled and one caught behind by Qureshi, as Totternhoe slumped towards defeat.
Unsurprisingly, it was journeyman Hammond who nicked the last wicket, bowled again, to leave Totternhoe 67 all out and 100 runs adrift of Lilley, who are now unbeaten in the six weeks since 20th June. Tellingly, Qureshi hit more runs in his innings than Totternhoe did in their entire team effort.
So another ‘W’ and on to Ivanhoe next week…hoorah!
