CH270506

So 3 weeks since the last game against Wibsey, Whitehall had a few changes to deal with.
Richard, Dean, and Phil were missing from the side that beat Wibsey, with Petch coming in
for his 2nd game of the season with Steve and Paul making their first outings of the season.
Whitehall's visitors were early season strugglers Castlehill, who after 5 games were propping
the table, with only 2 points from a rained off game to show for their efforts.

So Whitehall lined up as follows: M Wood, M Wright, M Palmer, A Dunne, J
Bainbridge, S Mace, R Finch, C Thompson, S Haw, P Dockerty and A Petch.

After a mixed week weather wise, the chances were that the game may not even get
underway. However both teams were keen to have a game of cricket, and the umpire was
happy for us to start, although the pitch was a little damp, and the outfield had the odd
puddle there.

For the 2nd time Whitehall won the toss, and elected to field.

Simon opened up the bowling from the Headingley end, with Joe at the Wooded end of the
ground. The early exchanges we a bit of cat and mouse, the first big over went Castlehill's
way as Allen hit Simon for 2 4s in 3 balls, although bother could have brought a wicket.

However Whitehall stuck back quickly, the next over saw the first wicket Joe trapping Biggs
LBW for 10. Not to be outdone, Simon got revenge for Allen's runs the previous over,
managing to get the ball to sneak through the gate. 21-2 after 9 overs, not a bad start.

Whitehall only had to wait 4 overs for the 3rd wicket to arrive as Simon picked up his 2nd
wicket, with the scored only having moved on to 27.

Whitehall were beggining to apply some pressure to Castlehill, restricting them to only 8 runs
in 7 overs and we starting to get on top of the game. In the 16th over of the game with the
score at 29, the first piece of excellent fielding brought about Castehill's 4th wicket, a
coverdrive was well stopped but fumbled by Martin, but as the batsman started to take a
single, he slipped on the damp wicket, and Martin's throw was of balance, however a direct
hit at the bowlers end was enough to send the batsman back to the boundary.

In the next over Simon took his 3rd wicket trapping Wagstaff LBW, this followed 2 very good
shouts for LBW against the same batsman the over before. 30-5 and Whitehall were really
on top.

However the next 10 overs were dominated by Castlehill as they moved towards 50. However
with the score at 49 Paul out did Martin's piece of field with an even more impressive run out,
Paul swooped turned from facing the strikers end and hit the stumps to send the batsman
packing. It really was a brilliant piece of fielding however Whitehall were sloppy in the field,
as nearly everybody made a mistake down to concentration.

Castlehill dominance continued, as they built the first big partnership of their innings.
However Whitehall had their chances, with Mick, and Paul dropping chances, and a number
of big shots managed to find the gap between the fielders. Chris's 5th over was the prime
example of this with 3 chances in an over going begging as the over went for 12.

As the Castlehill innings appeared to be gathering momentum, and a score of over 100
looked likely. Simon struck, bowling the dangerous Maplebeck for 23. 2 balls later he struck
again bowling Fenton for 0.

Joe and Simon then bowled tightly as the innings started to peter out, with 2 overs left Joe
took the last 2 wickets in 2 balls to restrict Castlehill to 92 all out. Castlehill would probably
be disappointed not to have hit 3 figures, and Whitehall definately let the game drift in the
middle section of the game.

Simon bowled very well and tightly and he possibly deserved better than his figures of 5-35.
Joe bowled well again, and was exceptional in his 2nd spell only going for 2 runs in that time.
Chris was unbelievable unlucky to end up with no wickets for 25 runs. He deserved much
better and on another day could have ended up with 3 wickets for half as many runs.

So as the sandwiches were eaten, the whether looked to really be picking up, as the game
was played in glorious sunshine during the end of the first innings.

So Whitehall's chase began, needing 93 to win. However in the 3rd over of the game Paul
played over the ball and his innings was over after adding only 3 to the total. This brought
Aidan to the crease, and for the 2nd innings running he played very well, dispatching the
bowling to all corners of the ground, while Mick did his job keeping the other end ticking over.

However on 20, Aidan seemed to get caught in 2 minds and got bowled for 20. Whitehall had
got of to a OK start and were 33-2. However 33-2 soon became 35-3 as Martin was caught
behind mistiming a sweep and the ball spooned high up in the air and was taken nicely by
the keeper with Martin only troubling the scorer for 2 runs.

This brought Steve to the crease for the first time in 2006. Him and Mick looked to be nicely
set be Steve played round a straight one for 4 runs, and the score was stranded on 42-4.
The innings was really in the balance, 2 quick wickets could see Whitehall in deep trouble,
so Joe needed to calm things down.

Him and Mick seemed to however with the score on 56 Joe missed a straight one and the
ball just clipped the bails. This brought captain Wood to the crease, again for the first time in
2006.

Mick was batting very well at this point and some fortunately place shots from Wood saw the
score move on nicely, with them getting pretty much a boundary an over to move Whitehall
within sight of their target. G Allen looped up a ball that was begging to be hit, unfortunately
it turned an Mick played around it only for him to get bowled. A well built innings had really
carried Whitehall towards the 6 points.

Mick's wicket brought Chris to the wicket with Whitehall only need 9 to win. Chris did a good
job holding up one end and Woody tried hard to throw his wicket away but a quick run 2
down to midwicket and a well struck 4 straight down the ground saw Whitehall home with 4
wickets and 15 overs to spare.

Whitehall managed to do just enough to win, but were far from impressive, however after not
having played for 3 weeks a little bit of rustyness was to be expected. On today's showing
Castlehill won't finish bottom and should climb the table sooner rather later.

Next week sees Whitehall travel to league leaders Farsley, and if we have real title ambitions
we need to improve a lot for this 12 pointer.

The scorecard can be found here, and you can vote for your man of the match here.

We also now have some pictures from this game here.

Next week Farsley (a)