Worcestershire Royals V Warwickshire Bears

Worcestershire Royals V Warwickshire Bears BBS National Cricket League Division 2

Report by Alan Humphries

Alan Humphries reporting on the first League match for the newly formed Warwickshire Cricket Club for the Visually Impaired against the equally new Worcestershire Royals at Worcester College for the Blind! The game was moved to the College owing to ground booking difficulties: -

"A warm day in April saw the joint start of the new Warwickshire/Worcestershire club's season with a good, old fashioned local derby!

Warwickshire won the toss and elected to bat with a solid start made by Griffiths and Harrison with Griffiths the first man to go for 20 with the score on 72 a couple of wickets followed - Pickup (5) and Foy (24) - before Andy Powers joined Harrison and played a quite destructive knock of 51 (including 8 fours and 2 sixes). Both of these batsman eventually perished for the said 51 with it being left to Lee and Sugg to take their new club past the magic 250 off 30 overs to acheive maximum batting points - that is 5 as we hope the Committee have finally released the new rules to every one as there appears to have been some confusion this weekend which not even the Chair of BBS could resolve!! Warwickshire finished on 255 for 7 declared off 31 overs.

Tea was followed by the Worcestershire innings which started well with a good knock from Paul Powers - he formerly of Birmingham fame - and Robbie Williams - not he of singing fame! Robbie went first after hanging around for a while frustrating the bowlers caught behind off Griffiths soon to be followed by Paul for 24 bowled behind his legs by Griffiths also. It is sad to note that Warwickshire seemed to take their collective feet off the gas at this stage and did not ram home their advantage - by the time a concerted effort was put in to get the last wickets, Worcestershire's batsman had dug in and going for the draw which they duly achieved - and thoroughly deserved - after 29 overs finishing on 130 for nine. Bowling performance of the day must go to Gav Griffiths with 5 for 25 (that's a round of drinks next week isn't it Gav!) with fielding of note going to Mark Pickup who took 3 excellent catches in poor light behind square towards the end of the match. Contentious moment of the day - isn't there all ways one with Warwickshire nee Birmingham! - the run out of Hill by Sugg backing up without the oft expected traditional warning to stay in his crease - I have never seen this warning applied in any other form of cricket and fail to see why blind cricket teams should apply it if they don't want to! I won't even begin to work out the points each club has as I'm not completely sure of the new points system and nor, I suspect on recent evidence and communication, is the current Committee with its dynamic leadership - not!!

An excellent day's cricket enjoyed by all with full credit going to Worcestershire and Geoff "The Legend" Smith for making a true battle of the game and showing what you can do if you apply the basics of cricket and an understanding of League cricket rules and tactics.

	Royals V Bears
	Worcestershire Royals V Warwickshire Bears BBS National Cricket League Division 2 Report by Alan Humphries Alan Humphries reporting on the first League match for the newly formed Warwickshire Cricket Club for the Visually Impaired against the equally new Worcestershire Royals at Worcester College for the Blind! The game was moved to the College owing to ground booking difficulties: - "A warm day in April saw the joint start of the new Warwickshire/Worcestershire club's season with a good, old fashioned local derby! Warwickshire won the toss and elected to bat with a solid start made by Griffiths and Harrison with Griffiths the first man to go for 20 with the score on 72 a couple of wickets followed - Pickup (5) and Foy (24) - before Andy Powers joined Harrison and played a quite destructive knock of 51 (including 8 fours and 2 sixes). Both of these batsman eventually perished for the said 51 with it being left to Lee and Sugg to take their new club past the magic 250 off 30 overs to acheive maximum batting points - that is 5 as we hope the Committee have finally released the new rules to every one as there appears to have been some confusion this weekend which not even the Chair of BBS could resolve!! Warwickshire finished on 255 for 7 declared off 31 overs. Tea was followed by the Worcestershire innings which started well with a good knock from Paul Powers - he formerly of Birmingham fame - and Robbie Williams - not he of singing fame! Robbie went first after hanging around for a while frustrating the bowlers caught behind off Griffiths soon to be followed by Paul for 24 bowled behind his legs by Griffiths also. It is sad to note that Warwickshire seemed to take their collective feet off the gas at this stage and did not ram home their advantage - by the time a concerted effort was put in to get the last wickets, Worcestershire's batsman had dug in and going for the draw which they duly achieved - and thoroughly deserved - after 29 overs finishing on 130 for nine. Bowling performance of the day must go to Gav Griffiths with 5 for 25 (that's a round of drinks next week isn't it Gav!) with fielding of note going to Mark Pickup who took 3 excellent catches in poor light behind square towards the end of the match. Contentious moment of the day - isn't there all ways one with Warwickshire nee Birmingham! - the run out of Hill by Sugg backing up without the oft expected traditional warning to stay in his crease - I have never seen this warning applied in any other form of cricket and fail to see why blind cricket teams should apply it if they don't want to! I won't even begin to work out the points each club has as I'm not completely sure of the new points system and nor, I suspect on recent evidence and communication, is the current Committee with its dynamic leadership - not!! An excellent day's cricket enjoyed by all with full credit going to Worcestershire and Geoff "The Legend" Smith for making a true battle of the game and showing what you can do if you apply the basics of cricket and an understanding of League cricket rules and tactics.