Fars030606

Whitehall travelled to Farsley knowing that a win would take them to within 4 points of the
early season leaders.

Whitehall had probably their strongest line up of the season. Dean Wright was back to keep
and Phil Simpson made his first appearance of 2006, in place of absentee's Bob Finch and
Anthony Petch.

So Whitehall lined up as follows:- S Haw, M Wright, D Wright, A Dunne, M Palmer, P
Dockerty, J Bainbridge, M Wood, S Mace, P Simpson, C Thompson.

Woody won the toss for the 3rd time this season, and elected to bowl in glorious sunshine.

Simon opened the bowling at the Calverley lane end of the ground with Joe starting at the
Ring Road side of the ground on a hat-trick.

The early overs were a tight affair with only the one boundary coming, in the 6th over.
However in the next over Simon Mace stuck, dismissing R Monaghan or 13, getting one to
swing round his legs, which was the first delivery to appear to do anything on a good looking
track.

2 balls later Simon struck again with Paul snatching J Greaves in the slips for a duck. The
score remained at 22. Joe then kept the pressure up by bowling a tight maiden, before in the
9th over Simon struck for the 3rd time in 5 balls, with Michael Wood taken a routine catch to
dismiss R Monaghan Jnr. Farsley were now stranded at 22-3 after a good start Whitehall
had fought back well.

Farlsey then responded well with Amir and Scott scoring some quick runs, although some of
their shots managed to find the gaps in the field, when on another day would have found a
fielder. However in the 13th over Simon struck for the 4th time, Scott going for his cross
sweep slog managed to pick out Steve Haw, and some how Steve held on to it to claim his
first catch of the season. Farsley had moved on to 41-4.

During the next passage of play Whitehall changed the bowling with Paul replacing Joe,
however Paul was expensive early on and this let Farsley move on to 61. However in the
17th over Simon claimed his second 5 for of the season, having Chahon caught brilliantly by
Paul at short mid on. The score stood at 61-5, Whitehall were probably just on top but with
Amir not out at the other end, Whitehall would have to be careful.

Whitehall were next to strike a major blow with the score on 73, when Simon clean bowled B
Greaves.

The next partnership, was to be pivotal in the game as Amir and Kenyon put on 24 to take
the score just short of 100. The partnership was broken by Joe in his 2nd over of his 2nd
spell and he bowled Amir with a delivery which was just to quick. Whitehall were happy with
Farsley at 97-7.

2 overs later Whitehall struck twice in 2 balls the first wicket to fall was Kenyon for 20, with
Wood taking a tricky catch above his head running backwards. Next ball again Joe beat
Mirza for pace. 102-9 and Whitehall were delighted. Simon wrapped things up by having
Petty caught by Mick in the slips. 105 all out, and Whitehall were on top.

Whitehall's run chase started off nicely with the score racing to 11 with Steve contributing 9
of them, before Steve had ball the kept low and sneaked through and bowled him.

Dean then game to the crease and with Mick's help built a nice partnership of 38, before
Mick was on the end of a harsh looking decision, and Mick was out for 14 and the score was
49-2. In the next over, Dean went after the spinner but missed the boundary by a couple of
yards and was caught in the deep for 13. Very soon after Martin can down to the spinner,
missed the ball and was stumped, and 3 wickets had fallen for 8 runs and Whitehall were in
a spot of bother at 57-4. However with Dean and Aidan at the crease, they could get out of
the trouble they found themselves in.

However, things went from bad to worse in the next 2 overs, Paul played a shot in to the
offside and set off, Aidan was slow to set off, and was tightly run out, it was hard to see who
was at fault however the run out would have even bigger consequences when in the next
over Paul got bowled by a full toss which appeared to pass above his waist and should have
been a no ball. However not for the first time in the game the 50 50 decision went Farsley's
way. 59-6.

The fall off these 2 wickets brought Joe and Woody to the crease, and the put on a streaky
8, with Wood struggling with an ankle injury sustained in taking his 2nd catch in the first
innings.

Wood was first to fall playing a very lazy shot in Amir and being caught at point, but all 3 of
his scoring shots had given Farsley a chance to score run.

Joe was next to be out for 9 after being bowled leaving the score at 80. Simon and Phil then
looked like they may be able to dig Whitehall out of this massive hole. However Simon will
count himself incredibly unlucky to be given out LBW when the ball struck him a good 5
yards down the track and appeared to be drifting down leg side.

Whitehall were finally put out of their misery when Chris was given out LBW to a ball that
struck him above the roll of his pads, so looked like it was going over the stumps. All out 18
runs short of the target.

Whitehall's batting collapse was disasterous with all the middle order batsmen from 4 to 8
letting the side down. However 4 contensious decsions didn't help matters either.

However Whitehall can take heart from the game, with a game in hand and 2 fixtures against
Farsley still to come the wrongs of today can be put right. As on another day, Whitehall
could and should have won easily.

However it wasn't to be our day, and we find ourselves 16 points adrift of the leaders.