FALKLAND CC BOOK TRIP TO HEADQUARTERS

6th February 2000

 

Berkshire Champions Falkland CC are now also the South Eastern Champions following two victories in the Regional Finals of the ECB Indoor 6-a-side National Cricket Championship held at the Kent CCC Indoor School at Canterbury on Sunday 5th March.

The side now progresses to Lords on Sunday 12^th March for the National Semi-Finals and Final where the winners from the Northern, Midland and South Western Regions will be competing. Being in the final four of the National Championship guarantees the Club a Semi-Final place at least and they are now only two games away from being National Champions.

Last Sunday’s two games were a triumph for team spirit and commitment with everyone playing their part to the full.

The first game saw victory over Essex Champions, Braintree, by 5 wickets. Tight bowling by Nigel Trumper, Richard O’Toole and Julian Wood was assisted by some excellent fielding restricting Braintree to 90-5 off their allotted 12 overs.

Falkland’s reply was excellent with 50 on the board before Wood was run out for 19. Chris Brown – 25 Not Out – and Richard O’Toole took up the challenge with O’Toole smiting 23 Not Out in nine balls to ensure victory by 5 wickets with almost three overs remaining.

The second game against Kent Champions, Pfizer, was an altogether much closer affair. Batting first, Pfizer were restricted to only 28 after six exceptionally tight overs from James Morris and Nigel Trumper – both of whom bowled a maiden – a rarity in this form of cricket. Wood and O’Toole took up where Morris and Trumper had left off. Further excellent fielding yielded three run-outs, but a final total of 86-5 was always going to be challenging.

With Wood and Brown out cheaply, it was left to O’Toole and Skipper Andy Townsend to repair the damage. When Townsend was run out for a well crafted 21 and Trumper dismissed in a similar manner without scoring, it was left to O’Toole and Morris to score the final 31 needed for victory off the last three overs.

This crisis brought out the awesome best of "Toolie" – 39 Not Out – who destroyed the Kent second string bowlers leaving James Morris – 6 Not Out – to hit the final winning runs ensuring a victory by two wickets with four balls to spare.

All in all – a truly memorable day.

And so to Lords!! Hopefully for a day to remember.

The Falkland squad of Andrew Townsend (Captain), Julian Wood, Richard O’Toole, Chris Brown, James Morris, Nigel Trumper and Andy Wynn will be strengthened by the return from holiday of Mark Baker – giving the Skipper an interesting selectorial dilemma.