Apoligies for the delay in getting posts on here, blame it on Ashmeads wedding preparations!!!A few weeks of good weather has seen ashfield come up a bit short in the last 3 games. Three weeks ago we travelled up to atherstone on a hot day. Matt Pickering had a great knock of 193 to help Atherstone get a score of 333 in 49 overs, PJ bowled well,as did Zubair but the fielding let us down badly for the second week running. Olly "Im a pro rugby player" Thomas shelling Pickering when in the 70's (only cost us 120 runs!!!!) Pickering after passing his 150 knowing he was due to have a bowl even resorted to trying to help us out and when PJ didn't even get a hand to a caught and bowled miscue even the batsman was getting annoyed!!. Seriously though Pickering batted extremely well, but from our point of view It was felt that poor fielding cost us the week before against Nuneaton and whilst Atherstone and Pickering batted well, things may have turned out differently if we had taken our chances against Atherstone on this day. Ashfield totalled 160 all out after some good work repairing the innings by Guy Shears who scored fifty. The job looked to be nearly done and Ashfield were 12 balls away from safety with 4 wickets in hand, 3 lbws were given in the last 2 overs, these decisions left ashfield players surprised. Especially guys decision as it left him with a nice red mark some where near the middle of his stomach !!!!!!!!
One of the highlights of the day was two young lads stopping on the boundary with an autograph book asking Olly Thomas to sign it, thinking it was due to his sterling efforts for Moseley RFC during the winter months he duly signed little did he know the kids actually thought they were getting Tim Henmans autograph!
Ashfield then entertained Old Eds at home last weekend and after a poor start recovered to post 238 thanks to Mr Azam the master blaster who fell just short of his hundred and together with some wristy stroke play from Bromhall getting the reverse sweep out just like his idol Pietersen, saw us post a decent score. Very tidy bowling saw Old Eds always behind the rate and Ashfield held onto a winning draw. Once again though small fielding errors cost us, after two fielders clashing (gillespie/waugh) style when going for a catch not once but twice during the game. The second chance seeing Zubair momentarily forget the English language when Olly had called for the ball 3 times he barged him out of the way Johnny Wilkinson style, the end result being the ball on the floor and a couple of red faces and a wobbler thrown by the skipper!!. A good day and nice for the boys to catch up with some old mates in the form of Johnny Nicholls and Spear afterwards.
Then this weekend as the nation was gearing up for a day of high drama we travelled over to Highway, I don't think we've ever played a game at highway without it being hot. A very un-highway wicket saw Highway bat first and some very good bowling by Zubair, Philo and an excellent spell by Amer Hussain who all bowled well on wicket with no pace and hot conditions was a good effort. The only down side was the clanger dropped by the skipper in the gully, luckily tommo (or should I say the batsman) saved my blushes the very next ball when he spooned it up to tomski at cover! Ashfield missing Guy, Olly Thomas and Mo Azam 3 of our top 6 left a big hole and after a confident start on his debut Abu Purvaiz fell to a ball that kept slightly low and Ashfield found themselves 34-4. Tommo played well as did Kazim Zaidi who played some lovely shots, closing down on the highway total ashfield lost a couple of wicket and with 20 odd runs required and 1 remaining ashfield were settling for the draw Mr Bromhall aka "British bulldog" was given out to a very dubious decision to leave ashfield very frustrated for the third time this season throwing a game away that was ours for the taking.
We entertain Pickwick at home next week good news being with the league so open we are still very much in touching distance of top spot. With the bowling department looking strong and all the batters looking very positive and hungry after a couple of lean weeks am sure it will be a good day for the Ashfield.
