Spen Victoria Vs Farsley

At Spen Lane

Bradford League Match

Sunday 11^th May 2008

Spen’s first game in the Bradford League turned out to be a triumphant one, claiming a win in a match which had a nail biting finish as it went right down to the last ball.

Spen batted first and opened with Sam Sharp and Oli Davison. They both got off to great starts and were fifty-five without loss from nine overs until Davison went for a big shot, miscued it and was caught. The next over the same thing happened to his opening partner as he also hit one to a fielder. Within the space of five overs Spen were three more wickets down as Ant Dowling, Tom Loker and Vivek Sharma went cheaply. Spen recovered through Dom Oldham and Chris Rodwell’s partnership of thirty-six and reached 108-5 in their twenty overs.  

Spen were feeling confident as they went out to field but the Farsley captain had other ideas scoring a magnificent fifty-one which brought Farsley back into the game. Bowlers Tom Raven and Oli Davison found it hard to find their length and were expensive. But once again opening bowler Matty Haley kept his end tight and was backed in the middle of the innings by exceptionally tight spells by Ali Zafar and Sam Sharp. Farsley needed nine from 4 overs but an absolutely phenomenal piece of bowling from Dom Oldham and Chris Rodwell (who were the batting saviours) combined with some excellent fielding meant that Spen managed to grab a victory from the last ball where Farsley needed 2 runs but the batmen only managed to chip one to Matty Haley at point. In the end then Spen won by one run.

Match Report by Oliver Davison.

(R)= Retired

(*)= Not Out

Spen Victoria Batting

S Sharp 18, O Davison 28, C Rodwell 23*, A Dowling 0, T Loker 6, V Sharma 1, D Oldham 17*.

DID NOT BAT: M Oakes, A Zafar, T Raven, M Haley.

Spen Victoria Bowling