On a wet day that had already meant the first teams game at home had been abandoned the twos travelled to Burghill, Tillington and Weobley on the other side of Hereford in anticipation of having a wasted journey with plenty of showers about. Remarkably the dry weather held for the duration of the game. BTW lost the toss and were invited to have first knock on a well grassed pitch, they immediately set about the wayward visitors attack of Basford jnr and The Hooch. It wasn’t until Wicko introduced himself and bowled oppo skipper Garrard with a drifting half volley that the Martlets started to show for the game. A sharp c&b by the skip accounted for the other opener but the young Stevenson brothers started to take a likening to the Martley trundler with boundaries starting to flow. At the other end after a rusty start the ageing lob bowler Tej Uppal started to find some rhythm having been sprayed in WD40 finishing with 1/42. Wicko managed to snaffle a third wicket ending up with 3/62 and with the total on 121 for 4 Martley had a sniff of bowling out BWT for something manageable but a fifth wicket partnership of 192 by Chadhani(88) and Das (82) seemed to put the game out of the visitors reach finishing on 314 for 5. The fielding remained game although the bowling accuracy left a lot to be desired with one mitigating factor the cross wind that never let up but at least it kept the rain at bay.
The Martlets reply got off to a disastrous start with George Rose comprehensively bowled fourth ball without a run on the board, this also ended Sweetie’s marathon umpiring spell. This brought AJH Basford to the wicket and he Birchers set about the mountainous task of chasing down 314. Now if Martleys bowling was wayward then BTW’s was scattergun wides, no balls and extras a plenty all gratefully received. Without ever really having to accelerate the two made it to 194, which has to be at least a twos second wicket record, picking off regular low risk boundaries keeping the visitors up with the required rate. In fact things were going so well that old Uncle Tej was able to take a well deserved nap following his exhausting 9 over stint. On 67 Elsie had had enough and played over the top of a full one to leave AJHB to his one man show. The remaining 120 runs were scored mainly in boundaries hitting 19 fours and 7 sixes all the time knowing that his dismissal would probably mean the end of the chase. Regular wickets fell at the other end as the chase entered the final over with 8 required for victory but a pull into the mid wicket fencing for six all but put the game to bed, AJHB finishing on 161 not out. An awesome chase cheered on by the vociferous travellers, one to remember. An excellent live stream was available which kept non attendees entertained including Alan Taylor informing the scorer that he was crediting the runs to the wrong batter from his living room. An edited version of 30 minutes is available entitled ‘ how not to defend 314’ well done to the editor
