Sidley win again - but only just!

Wiilingdon 3rd XI  145-8 (40 overs)  - 12 points

Sidley CC  146-9 (37.2 overs)  - 30 points

Dave Coveney, eager to start the Sidley innings

An extremely tense last few overs saw Sidley scramble home in a rollercoaster of a match at the Sandhurst Recreation Ground on Saturday.

Willingdon, having lost the toss, set a creditable total of 145-8 against some steady bowling, although from being 82-3 at one stage, this score must have been a disappointment for them. Jim Stewart took 3-23 off 8 overs and Craig Ramsden 2-28 off 10 overs. 

The drama of the day began when a downpour brought the players off two overs before the end of the Willingdon innings. The visitors showed reluctance to continue unless the rain stopped. After some improvement in the conditions, and a certain amount of persuasion by Sidley players and supporters, Willingdon agreed to "give it a go" in the spirit of the game, expecting, as most of those present did, that there would soon be another downpour and that would be that. 

Sidley got off to a strong start, with Simon Newstead (58) and Craig Ramsden (50) moving the team towards what appeared to be a comfortable victory. However, with the sun, against all expectation, coming into full glory, wickets began to tumble, and from 104-3, the nervous home side quickly found themselves on 138-9, still requiring 8 runs to win in fading light, and the clock moving towards mid-evening. Much to the visitor's jubilation, Cavan O'Connor was bowled, and victory appeared to be theirs, but he was immediately reprieved due to that delivery being deemed a no-ball by the home umpire. Andy Pearson fought a determined rearguard action to support Cavan at the other end, and eventually, again to the dismay of the visitors, Sidley scraped home on a wide delivery. 

Several of the visiting team left briskly at the conclusion of the match, but most accepted the result in good spirit (12 points for them, rather than just the 9 that would have been awarded for an abandoned match), and were probably left reflecting on two dropped catches towards the end, which, had they been held, might well have produced a different result. Certainly the willingness to play a match when it might have been easy to abandon it, produced a really exciting game - which is why we all love cricket. 

The ebb and flow of fortunes, and emotions, during the afternoon and evening made this a match of very high drama, and moved Sidley to top position in the league, with a lead of 20 points over St. Peter's - who have a game in hand. 

Next Saturday sees Sidley travelling to Seaford to face their 4th XI.