Farsley CC v Gomersal CC

Date: Saturday, August 15
Venue: Red Lane, Farsley Weather: Rain
Result: Gomersal won by 41 runs
Points: Farsley 4 : Gomersal 15
Scores: Gomersal 122-9: Farsley 81 all out

After the splendid win at Leaders Baildon the week before Farsley's faithful had endured another horror show in this rained ruined game at Red Lane where the Rams were finding life difficult at what used to be a fortress, this being their seventh defeat this season and where they have managed on only two League victories.

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There were two poor batting displays from two poor sides on the day, neither team being helped by some below par umpiring decisions against both sets of batsmen, the Rams suffering by the far the worse with late decisions costing the game.

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Readers of a nervous disposition may not wish to read any further with the fact being that the Rams collapsed in dramatic fashion from an early score line of 55-1 – with 14 overs remaining to get another 68 runs for victory – to an all out 81 total off the 4th ball of the very last over of their reduced allocation – i.e. they lost by 9 wickets for a paltry 26 runs! If you wish to read on………………..

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Gomersal won the toss after a late start at 1.45 pm, the game being determined as 42 overs a side match as Richard Gould and stocky Andrew Greenwood faced James Lee (fresh from a Yorkshire Two's innings win at surrey at Guildford) and Chris Henry, the Rams leading wicket taker. Ashley Metcalfe returned as skipper of the Rams in the continued absence of David Syers.

Chris was the first to get an early wicket, Greenwood caught behind by Anderson with Gomersal on only 11-1. Overseas batsman Khan joined Gould and the pair eased the visitors to 33 in the game's 12th over when Chris then pinned the talented opener with the first questionable LBW decision, Gomersal 33-2, at which point 'Enzo took over the largely ineffective Jimmy at this point of the game.

In truth, the visitors never really got going, Khan also getting the LBW treatment, again off Henry at 43-3, which quickly became 44-4 when Farsley's 'keeper pouched another catch – this time off 'Enzo's bowling – and with Ash replacing Chris at 50-4 the left handed Ben Platt and the right handed Andrew Garrod had a lot to do to get Gomersal back on track.

Ash grabbed his first wicket after a number of weeks absence when 'Gazza' Phillips held a catch at 64-5 with 14 of their remaining 42 overs remaining, 'Enzo had gone for one huge 6 and another followed by the dangerous Whitehurst. With 10 overs remaining, Gomersal were 87-5 when James Lee was recalled but it was 21 runs later before the Rams saw the back of the big hitter, another Anderson catch giving Jimmy his first wicket of the afternoon 108-6.

The Ram's bowlers and fieldsmen had done well in difficult conditions of a blustering wind and damp outfield and the returning Henry got his 4th wicket of the afternoon, and Farsley's 7th, another fine catch by 'Enzo at 114-7 and now only 3 overs remaining

Jimmy dropped a sitter off a catch off Chris at 120 but Anderson grabbed another behind the wicket catch off Jimmy, 122-8, who then re-distributed another Gomersal batsman's' stumps at the very next ball. He missed out on a hat trick however as Gomersal went to tea after making a modest enough 122-9 from their allotted 42 overs.

Chris finished on 4-27 in a fine 13 overs double shift, Jimmy took 3-31 in his two spells of 11 overs, 'Enzo (1-41 in 11) and Ash (1-16 in 7) taking the other two Gomersal wickets to fall Richard Whitehurst (just as at Gomersal) was the visitors' top scorer with another hard hitting 36, Ben Platt made 26 and Richard Gould 24 in a total which Gomersal thought was not enough. How wrong they were going to be!

Farsley's batting at best, and in truth, often falls short of First Division requirements and at worst it has been known to cost some of Farsley's faithful sleepless nights, with a few top order men capable of sustaining an innings after bright beginnings. Scores of between 10 and 20 by top 6 batsmen don't win matches and there has been a paucity all season of people making 50 or more. For those of you still wishing to pursue your late night reading, this latest Red Lane encounter was further proof.

'Gazza' and 'harpal each have talent which rarely translates however in to runs on the board but neither had much time to display any sort of credentials as rain drove the players from the field and after only 4 overs with the Rams on 8 for no wicket. A stop watch check showed a loss of 51 minutes from bails coming of to the restart of play and those with any mathematical inclinations felt that Farsley should have a further 21overs in which to score a require 115 for victory. The scorers were advised it was to be 20 however, plus one remaining ball of an incomplete over, which 'Harps' immediately dispatched for 6 to set the game back in motion.

There was little sense in trying to hit every ball to the boundary with a requirement of just 5 runs an over but the logic evade Harpal as a near boundary edge catch ended his innings once again in its infancy, Farsley 37-1, which was still a decent start particularly as 'Enzo and 'Gazza' moved the score along to 55 without too much trouble and with still 14c overs remaining.

It was at this point that Farsley had a real nightmare. Gomersal's bowler Burton began to realise it was his birthday and one umpire in particular began giving LBW's like he had a 7 o'clock bus to catch. 'Enzo went for a wild slash outside his off stick to be caught behind, 55-2 Jimmy came in but he needn't have bothered when he was caught at 55-3 and 'Gazza's' nice little knock was ended prematurely when he got the unwanted raised finger at 62-4.

This became 71-5 when 'Shabbs' missed a straight one to be bowled, 'Bazza' Frankland then went laughably LBW first ball, 71-6 and poor young Joe Greaves looking out of his depth was also bowled, Rams 73-7 with Burton seemingly bowling hand grenades at the scoreboard end, already, figures of 5-26 to his name.

Ash and wicket keeper Harry Anderson decided to shut up shop and deny Gomersal more than 'abandoned match' and 'bonus' bowling points but Ash got arguably the worst set of LBW's when one high and wide delivery won the cricket for Gomersal again and Farsley were 77-8 with less than 4 overs remaining.

Chris Henry strangely came in before 'Bozza' Thornton (a season long puzzle to Farsley faithful) but Harry got yet another dodgy looking LBW decision from an umpire now on an LBW roll, Rams 77-9, and when 'Bozza' in explicably took a single to expose Chris to fiery Burton it all proved too much for Farsley's leading wicket taker as Burton spread-eagled his stumps with 2 balls of the game remaining, Rams all out for a paltry 81.

Gomersal were cock-a-hoop of course with their late win which probably removed them further from relegation worries and rumour persisted in the clubhouse after match chat that Burton (6-31) had contacted the League Management to ask if he could have the same pair of umpires for the rest of the season. Nobody at League HQ was available for comment.

Other points haul by bottom placed sides have drawn the Rams further into the relegation mire and on the showing of this sorry afternoon they still have a lot to do to retain their First Division status.