Devon Dumplings v The Lost Boys

With a day to go, it was in doubt whether this fixture could take place. The sodden July meant most of the Devon league games were cancelled at the weekend and Uplyme was a victim to the weather as well. Two drop-outs the night before meant only nine players! However, at very short notice Shobrooke Park agreed to let us play the game there, and in addition found two players for us. 

With rain forecast for the afternoon and both teams keen to play, an unusual format was trialled. Instead of a 30 over game, we played a split innings game with each side batting for 15 overs before continuing their innings for a further 15 overs. If rain cut the game short, the higher score after 15 overs would be used to find the winner. 

The Lost Boys won the toss and chose to bat. Some discussion took place about how Play-cricket would deal with all this and play commenced! Jermain Harding found swing with the new ball and took two early wickets. A partnership between David White and Ryan Chitty then formed as rain began to fall, before Joel Seward struck with two wickets in the 10th over making the score 53-4. Both Seward and Zakariya Szilagyl bowled spin with impressive control with a wet ball and Alex Bevilaqua bowled very well, conceding only 3 runs per over. White and Oli Clarkson then took the score close to 100 before Adam Bilson bowled White for 46. The Lost Boys finished their 15 overs on 94-5.

The Dumplings opening partnership of Andrew Daldorph and Jake Pascoe started strongly with early boundaries taking the score to 27 in the third over. James Brown then took two quick wickets in the fourth over to bring Bilston to the crease. Daldorph and Bilston kept up the scoring rate until Bilston was caught on 25. At the end of the 15 overs, Dumplings reached 100-3 with Daldorph not out on 43.

Drizzle had been falling steadily for some time by this stage but with the pitch and outfield playing well, the match continued with the Dumplings still batting. Unfortunately within 6 overs the rain had become heavier and both sides agreed to pause for tea. Without a further break in the rain, this also proved to be the end of the match. Daldorph finished on an excellent 62* and Bevilaqua on 34* taking the Dumplings score to 141-3 in 20.3 overs.

Many thanks go to Shobrooke Park (particularly Roger Jones) without whom the match would not have started, along with the officials including Peter Jolliffe umpiring in the wet, Derek Hardy scoring and Wendy Hardy helping with teas. 
Thank you also to all the players for making the best of the conditions and persevering to make sure we could give the Lost Boys a game of cricket – even if it wasn’t our customary all day game! Finally, thank you to the Lost Boys for the game and their customary excellent tea that they bring with them. Hopefully there will be a chance to play a full day again in the future.

The Lost Boys: 94 (David White 46 – Joel Seward 17/2) 

DD: 141 (Andrew Daldorph 62, Alex Bevilaqua 34no – James Brown 2/23)) 

DT