Disley Cricket Club

For the first time in 2010, the 2ndXI were resoundingly beaten in an oddly therapeutic loss at Romiley that at least reflected the balance of play throughout a wet afternoon. Disley inserted the hosts, but, taking advantage of a small boundary on one side, the home team plundered the Disley attack for 197-7 from the reduced allocation of 30 overs as Rick Robinson-Moss (4-91, including his 100th 2ndXI wicket) and Toby Carson (3-44) shared the only wickets to fall. It left the team with an impossible chase and a batting line-up missing leading run-scorers Ash Boardman and Madusha Wettasinghe was sent back for just 68, including four ducks as only opening batsmen Arshad Awan and Stewart Reynolds made it into double figures.

Such were selection difficulties for this fixture that U15s Alex Dyson and Tilina Prathapasin had to be drafted in at short notice along with injured Simon Hunter who was coerced into playing through a shin injury that will prevent him bowling again in 2010. It left the 2ndXI unsure of the best course of action, especially when rain reduced the game to 60 overs and with that in mind Rick Robinson-Moss stuck the home side in. What followed was an exercise in leather fetching as the home side turned in a clinical batting display to rack up an insurmountable 197-7. All of Disley’s three-man seam attack took stick, the only highlight being skipper Rick Robinson-Moss claiming his 100th 2ndXI wicket for the Club as he bowled unchanged to return 4-91. There wasn’t much luck at the other end either, Simon Hunter clearly struggling for fitness whereas Toby Carson was brutalised for his three wickets. A small boundary didn’t help (Carson at one point hit out of the ground and over a house!) but Disley were being outclassed for the first time in the season as Coupes led from the front with 64 before Tom Roberts came agonisingly close to joining him with a half-century. With the individual scores displayed on the scoreboard for the home team, he entered the final over knowing he needed just two runs to reach fifty, but Robinson-Moss did enough to starve him of the strike so he finished 49* not out for the only mini-battle the 2ndXI won all day.

197-7 is a good total off a full allocation, never mind just 30 overs so the game was finished as a contest by the half-way mark unless Disley could pull something truly spectacular out of the bag, and without both of their 2010 leading run-scorers and century-makers no less. Skipper Robinson-Moss is no great fan of the losing draw, so talk of stifling the innings never occurred – though with the way the hosts then tore through the batting it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

Stewart Reynolds fired the only 6 of the Disley innings early in the reply, but he and partner Arshad Awan would be the only batsmen to reach double figures in a batting effort terrorised by the pacy Badrock. Numbers 3-7 in the line-up managed a cumulative 23-ball stay at the wicket, Badrock removing four of them as they combined for just 11 runs as the 2ndXI limped to 38-6. Only Awan offered determined resistance, clipping his way to 23 including three boundary 4s before he was the seventh man out (54-7) having added an innings-high partnership of 16 with the obdurate Nick Baker. Disley finished resoundingly beaten as they were bowled out in the 25th over for just 68, and, whilst Romiley completed the double over the 2ndXI, this performance was worlds apart from the former D&C side’s sketchy win at the DASC in week two. They had little competition from a severely weakened 2s who fielded several young teenagers with little/no experience of adult cricket, but this was without question the most impressive performance that Disley have come across in Division C and it would be hard not to back Romiley for promotion as champions on this evidence.

Despite being the 2ndXI’s fourth defeat of the campaign, and easily their heaviest, there was something bizarrely therapeutic about taking such a thumping. All other losses and, particularly, winning-draws have left thoughts of what might have been, but this was a clear cut as they come and in that way was relatively painless after the event as Badrock tore through the batting on his way to 4-16.

The 2ndXI will kick on from here, welcoming back key players and hoping to continue their promising season through to a close. A challenge for promotion looks just beyond Robinson-Moss’ men, but they should be able to consolidate a top-half place which represents excellent progress towards instilling a new winning culture in the twos.

Play-Cricket Scorecard