SP220706

Whitehall travelled to Shipley, as the weather looked set to mean no play for Whitehall in
Bradford for the 2nd time in 2006.

Whitehall needed to make a number of changes from last weeks side against Cookridge.
Richard Francis (injury), Dean Wright (Rugby), Paul Dockerty (Holiday), and Anthony Petch
(Parenthood), joined Mick Wright, Duncan Elsey (Rugby), James Mahoney, Dave Bond
(Holiday), Martin Palmer (injury), Matt Hullah, Tom Moore (Parenthood), Ian Cox (Boating)
and Tony Thompson (injury/opera) on the sidelines.

So Whitehall were forced into 4 changes, Steve Haw returned from his holiday, as Phil White
returned after a few weeks away, and with him Jordan Firth made his first appearance in
2006, and Joe's brother Scott Bainbridge made his Whitehall debut.

So Whitehall lined up as follows:- S Haw, P White, A Dunne, J Bainbridge, B Mistri, R Finch,
M Wood, S Mace, C Thompson, S Bainbridge, J Firth. 12th Man J Robinson.

As Whitehall arrived at the coach road ground the rain was still falling heavily. But as the
pitch was covered and the outfield still very hard both captains sensibly decided to hang
around and hope the rain would die down.

The scheduled 1-30 start came and went, and the rain still persisted, however signs were
looking positive. And at about 1-45 the rain stopped and the covers came off. This is about
as good as things got for Whitehall.

Woody lost the toss for the 3rd time in as many weeks, and unsurprisingly Whitehall were
invited to bat first on the freshly uncovered wicket.

A slow start was made by openers Steve and Phil, as the first 5 overs the score stood at 2
runs. In the 6th over Whitehall lost their first wicket, Phil tried to cut a wide delivery but only
watch as the ball trickled on to his stumps. 3-1.

Aidan joined Steve at the crease, and with a point to prove looked very solid early on, and
seemed to settle into his innings. However in the 10th over with the score on 18 Steve was
bowled, after he got his bat stuck behind his pads. In the next over Joe followed Steve to the
pavilion. 23-3 now. Baz Mistri now joined Aidan in the middle and things to have settled down
as Whitehall moved on to 39 when Aidan deviated from his defensive mode and tried to get
the run rate moving but only managed to mistime a shot straight into the air 39-4. Not the
greatest of starts.

Mistri followed 2 overs later in very similar fashion to Dunne mistiming a shot straight to a
fielder with the score on 45. This brought captain Wood the crease to join Bob Finch, and
after a few overs of solid defence his eyes lit up at what he thought was a full toss, only to be
deceived by a slower ball from Pattison. Now Whitehall were in a lot of bother at 47-6.

Simon Mace now joined Bob, and they took the scored to 60 before Bob was caught at
square leg for 12.

Chris played a lovely cover drive which went for 4, but was adjudged LBW soon after and
Whitehall were 68-8. This brought Scott Bainbridge to the crease for the first time, and he
saw his first ball off with ease. However in the next over (after Simon had struck a lovely 4),
Simon trying to get the strike ran Scott out. This brought young Jordan Firth to the crease.

Jordan managed to see of the remainder of the over, and in the next over Simon hit 3
boundarys. Jordan then managed to score his first Whitehall run as he turned a ball round
the corner for a quickly taken single. Si then struck another 4 to take the score to 89.

Jordan unfortunately tried to turn another ball round the corner but was caught at square leg
to wrap up the Whitehall innings.

So Whitehall had to defend 89 runs, which with early wickets would be possible.

However the early wickets never materialised. It took Whitehall till the 12th over to take a
wicket when Joe bowled captain Free, Simon took his wicket the next over and Shipley were
51-2. However as the weather closed in Shipley marched on ominously to their target.

A few chances were missed, but nothing really went for Whitehall all afternoon and Shipley
reached their target when Chris bowled 5 wides.

To add insult to injury as the teams made the changing rooms the heavens opened just to
mock Whitehall.

The positives from the game were few, but it was good to see young Jordan scoring runs,
and Scott Bainbridge ran hard for Whitehall but very little went right.

This result probably sees us well and truly out of the championship race, and makes
promotion nearly beyond us, but with 9 games to go who knows. Lets aim to be unbeaten at
home in 2006, that would be an achievement!!