Happy Birthday Willy.
I suppose that if you are going to rise from the ashes the best place to do it is the home of the Firebird. The Hills arrived at Phoenix determined to erase the memory of their abject display against Pembroke and while they didn't manage a win they did recapture the esprit de corps for which their club has been long famed.
The home side won the toss and inserted their guests on a greenish top. The only effect of the surface, to the untutored eye, was that the ball didn't come through as quickly as might have been expected with Dave Langford-Smith and Osama Khan firing the early arrows. The Hills once again found themselves with a new opening partnership; Darrell Calder having succumbed to a bout of gastroenteritis, Manu Kumar was joined by Mal Byrne.
These two stayed around for a dozen overs and when Mal was dismissed Mike Baumgart assumed the position, there must have been something in the wicket for the bowlers for his 21 was only surpassed by the 23 wides on the visitors' card. Nobody in The Hills long line of batsmen could get to grips with the bowling or the wicket as the old raiders from the Caribbean made hay, Jeremy Bray with 3 of his erstwhile teammates for 18 and Lanky 3 for 22, doing the most of the damage. The Hills made 114 in 37 overs.
Given a tiny target Phoenix were quite entitled to feel that the points would be theirs without too much hardship but Naseer Shoukat had other ideas and sent back the first three for not many.
J.P.Bray arrived at the crease and the tension among the visiting supporters was palpable, would he get the rest himself? Caught off Yogesh Kashyapp by Baumgart at slip, the main threat was disposed of and the rest of the Phoenix batters found the going just as tough as had The Hills as Max Sorensen, 4 for 19, found his rhythm. The blot on the copy book came when Max failed to hold what should have been, for him, a regulation catch, dropping Lanky off the bowling of Luke Clinton. This was to prove expensive as the big man crashed a couple of boundaries before taking the trek back to the pavilion.
In the 30th over we were looking at Phoenix, with nine wickets down, needing 2 to win, a nick off the edge managed to evade the diving Baumgart and Kashyapp and the winning runs scored. While it wasn't a classic it was a tremendously exciting match in which both side gave their all and one can't be too critical but once again it proved the old saw "catches win matches".
So the Milverton men presented their former colleague Willy Dwyer, now advising Phoenix, with a bounteous birthday gift of 20 priceless points while claiming 5 bonuses for themselves.
We look forward to the return at The Vineyard in a couple of weeks.
Bobby Swarbrigg
Reproduced with kind permission of The Hills CC
