Haverhill Cricket Club

Haverhill played host to Worlingworth in what was expected to be a rain affected afternoon. Haverhill lost the toss and was asked to bat on a damp green wicket. Openers Simon Youngs (87) and Neil Winter (60) put on a solid hard fought opening partnership of 148 before Youngs tempting fate, again, closed the face to early and skied a relatively easy catch to the opposition captain. A Dellar came to crease and chose the wrong ball to leave his crease leaving a stumping opportunity that was quickly taken without bothering the scorers. M Wilkins (9) looked solid early on but was judged LBW before he could really get going. Last weeks man of the moment Dan Wilkins hit a quick 15 which more or less closed out the innings.

Special mention must be given to Greg Street (46) who�s luck was evident early on but brought home the runs in the closing overs with some superb stroke making.

Simon Youngs high calibre display and Neil Winter�s uncharacteristic supporting role provided the platform to release the middle order to play strokes however the middle order did falter with only Greg Street and his four leafed clover providing the runs.

Worlingworth had a real job on their hands. Skipper opening bowler Rob Sullivan again struggled, putting it down to the wet conditions. He often bowled short and inconsistent, not a day for fast bowlers, or so we thought. Joe Woodley (8-1-25-4) bowled his best to date with a good variety of short of a length deliveries, the odd bouncer and full deliveries with biting pace. He and Dan Poole (7-3-11-1) bowled in tandem and maintained the pressure that had been set by dart specialist M Wilkins who�s figures and batsmen scalps where regarded as a match wining display removing both opening batsmen. M Wilkins and Simon Youngs also a dart practione, applied the pressure through tight line and length bowling and some superb fielding from Greg Street in the slips with two good catches, a first class run-out to Carl Bradford, a fine catch to Dave Godwin in gully point off a spitting delivery from Joe Woodley and the innings was closed.

Dart Bowler � an Australian cricket term for a bowler who bowls accurate line and length medium pace off of 5 to 10 steps. They apply pressure to the opposition through relentless tight bowling and batsmen boredom.

Note (i) : Dart bowlers are not what they seem. Beneath the surface of the dart bowler, lurking in the darkest recesses of his phycoligical make-up is a frustrated fast bowler. With the help of counselling, hypnotism and re-inforcement through piers at specially arranged dart bowler club meetings they have managed to block out this urge to bowl quickly. Dart Bowlers can be easily identified by the following trademark statements �the faster you bowl the harder it gets hit�. This statement along with �shorten your run-up � and �slow down � your trying to bowl too fast� are blocks placed over the deep felt yearning to bowl fast. A secret handshake has also been witnessed however the fast bowler who saw this has no recollection of the incident. Its reported that he keeps mumbling �line and length, line and length� with a numb blank expression on his face. The fast bowler recently stopped mumbling but has since shortened his run-up and now bowls pies.

Pie Bowler: Australian term �usually quoted by fast bowlers� about dart bowlers.

Note: Visualize someone attempting to pitch your Grandmothers favourite apple pie 22 yards to a batsmen at the other end of the wicket. I think you�ve got it.

The dart bowler is an essential ingredient in any side when playing cricket on english wickets. The tracks are often damp and green, the more deliveries presented to the batsmen the more chance of movement and variation in bounce and hence a higher likelihood of getting a wicket.

Finally, a superb win that I feel the lads enjoyed and that�s what�s important at the end of the day. As I said last year, feel free to bring the family down for a quiet afternoon, hopefully in the sun, there is no charge and we have refreshments available. This year we have a game every Saturday at Haverhill starting at 2.00.