Foxon Fires in Run Chase to beat Newbold B

For the first time in 20 years Willoughby are through to the finals of the Midweek Cup after a thrilling run chase overcame a strong Newbold B side down by the River Avon!
Newbold has always been a bit of a batsman's paradise with a flat, artificial wicket and a very short boundary to the changing rooms. The 320 plus runs scored in this close-fought 1/4 final match showed this once again.
Having won the toss Captain Simon Nicholls called a team meeting. Conventional wisdom dictates that if you win the toss you bat 1st in evening cricket so that you are not batting in the fading light. However, resident meteorologist, Sean Thornton, assured us that the evening sky would remain free of clouds and that as we are approaching the Summer Solstice the light should not be an issue. Apart from anything we tend not to push on hard enough when we set a score and batting 2nd means that you can judge the necessary risks to take in order to keep up with the run rate. So with all that in mind! We stuck 'em in!
Having faced Newbold Teams before Captain Nicholls warned his bowlers that they were likely to come out swinging and they did; slapping opening bowlers Ben Hollis and Sean Thornton for 24 runs off the 1st 2 overs. With plenty of bowling options available the Captain decided on a quick change and brought Nick Crane on to replace Ben from the Rugby Club End earlier than he would have liked. The tactic worked with Nick immediately stemming the run flow and picking up the wicket of the Newbold No.2 in his 2nd over for 15 runs with the score on 37 in the 5th over.
Meanwhile Ben Hollis had retreated to Cow Corner and must have found an old pram in the river and some toys left lying around by one of the local kids. He spent the next few overs throwing the toys out of the pram, in between hurling insults at his own team-mates. The Captain and Vice-Captain had a quick chat and concluded that someone or something must have upset him and it was probably best to leave him down at Cow Corner/Deep Extra Cover until he calmed down.
Meanwhile Sean continued to bowl tightly and was unlucky not to take a wicket despite beating the edge several times. Captain Simon Nicholls replaced Nick Crane and was unlucky not to take a wicket in his 1st over when Richard Foxon dropped a simple catch out at long on. However, he struck next over when the Newbold No.3 popped one up high to Extra Cover and Si sprinted (hobbled) over to take a simple catch over his head off his own bowling. It was an expensive over, though and the Captain took himself off. He thought about sending himself out to the boundary and hurling insults at his team mates and himself but decided he would just look really silly!
With the score on 85/2 at the halfway mark Newbold were nicely set to push on for a decent score and were seemingly hitting boundaries at will, even off good balls. A change of tactics was needed again and with Sean bowled out Captain Nicholls decided to take Martin Nichols' advice for once and take the pace off the ball.
Up stepped John Gregson and Ian Button. Slow and 'really' slow worked well with the two spinners only going for 9 runs off their 1st 2 overs. Then John Gregson struck in the 12th over, the County player effortlessly taking a catch from a driven shot above his head for ANOTHER caught & bowled. Ian Button claimed the scalp of the stubborn Newbold Opener who was on 56. YET ANOTHER Caught & Bowled. Fortunately the batsman top-edged it and the ball went so high that Ian had the 30 seconds that he needed to sprint the 10 yards to Silly Midwicket and take his chance. What was going on? 3 Caught & Bowled? Perhaps the bowlers had decided to try not to trouble the fielders after Rich Foxon's drop?
112/4 and a change of pace was needed again. Richard Foxon replaced Ian and also decided not to trouble the fielders, clean bowling the equally stubborn Newbold No.5 for 32 in the 15th over with the score on 129. He bowled 1 over before switching to the other end and Nick Crane came on to bowl his final 2 overs. In a great display of fielding Nick ran out the Newbold Captain when they tried a suicidal single that plopped in front of Nick as he staggered through his follow through. Nick leaped, gathered, dived and chucked in one smooth movement for a direct hit. 148/6 with 3 overs to go. Rich scattered the stumps to see off another batsman before a catch finally stuck when Martin Nichols (who had replaced Butter Fingers Foxon out at Long On) set himself for an easy catch off Nick's penultimate over. The last 4 overs only went for 5,4,6 & 5 with 2 wickets and they did a great job of pegging back the Newbold score to a modest 163/8 on a track that regularly produces scores of 180 plus.

Sean Thornton and Martin Nichols began the Willoughby reply but both struggled against the opening pair of bowlers. Sean was caught in the 1st over off a slower ball and Martin bowled in the 2nd off a quicker one. Both were quite rightly trying to push the score along and no-one minded them getting out as they were doing the right thing. It wasn't easy to get the ball away with the field set deep and the quickies on target but Richard Foxon and Manny Sidhu began to come to grips with the surface and the runs started to flow with some hard running and the occasional boundary. At the halfway mark Willoughby needed 103 from the last 10 overs with wickets in hand. There was no way we were going to run 10 an over in the heat so they started to go aerial with some success. Manny was just starting to hit his straps when he missed a straight one in the 13th over for a very respectable 31 off 24 balls.
Ben Hollis, who seemed to have finally calmed down, strode out to the middle and took up the baton. Once again he rose to the challenge of assuming the supporting batsman role admirably and although he struggled to get the ball away he kept his wicket and did a fantastic job of keeping the man with his eye in on strike with Rich pinching singles at the end of each over. Ben finished unbeaten on 11 and along with Manny played a crucial roll in what was to come.
At this point Richard Foxon caught fire!
We have always known that he is such a skillful batsman that he has the ability to turn a game on his own but when you witness it first hand it is a truly awesome spectacle! Not just the power hitting but the finesse in his driven shots, cuts, hooks and pulls. Following the example set by the Newbold batsmen he dispatched a couple over the changing rooms for 6. He hit one over Cow Corner that almost went as vertically high as it travelled horizontally to the rope. With clever running and great stroke play we were staying up with the run rate and with 2 overs to go needed 22 runs for victory!
The excitement mounted as Rich faced the penultimate over. He wasn't going to leave it to the last minute. First ball he launched over Cow Corner again! I think it is the furthest that I have ever seen a ball hit! It must have travelled 40 metres past the rope before it finally came back down to earth! A quick 2 and bosh! Another 6! 18 from the last but 1 over and we now only needed 4 runs to win from 6 balls. Newbold brought the field up to stop the singles but it didn't matter. First ball a dot ball (what a tease!) then 2nd ball worked through Wide Midwicket for a 4 and Willoughby had won. What a victory! Rich finished 91 not out in one of the most devastating and well-timed run chases that I have ever witnessed. Even Ben Hollis had cheered up by the end and managed to crack a smile.

Another great all round team performance with the Willoughby bowlers sharing the wickets but a stunning individual performance from Rich Foxon to take us over the line.

We are now in the Big Bash Finals Day on Sunday 16th July at Rugby Cricket Club for the first time in many, many years. 2 semi-finals and the final will be played in the same day. We will be up against 3 Division 1 Teams but win or lose we should be proud of ourselves in making it to the last 4 out of 23 teams. For a little village team with several players the wrong side of 40 (or 50 or 60 in some cases :)) we've done exceptionally well to win 3 on the trot in the Cup and make it to the finals. When we play like this I do sometimes wonder why we are still in Division 3, though? :)

With Ash Rayner back and a middle order other teams can only dream about as well as depth in bowling and batting we can allow ourselves to dream a little. We've only got to win 2 on the trot and as we have proved a few times this season anything can happen in cricket! It's a funny old game!

Well done lads! Dream on!