By Seaxe Man
July 8 2006

Seaxe man reports on the latest shower, this time a Twenty20 at the Gasworks. He also comments on the whole Twenty20 tournament so far. There are few positives, but those few he can find, he does his best to milk. Travel and Weather
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Left deepest Midd-x at 1500hrs and arrived at The Brown Caps HQ at 1610hrs.
An unusually smooth LUL run. The weather to start with, was cloudy with
sunny spells - this changed to murk for awhile but became a sunny evening by
the time the Brown Caps innings started. It was reported that the game was a
sellout and there were few empty seats to be seen.

As an aside - having read Diamond's Richmond report - I totally agree with
his commendation of the venue for the shorter version of the game. A sell
out crowd in the July sunshine and as he says - that superb ale - 'The
Reverend James' is available in the Richmond CC Pav. This has got to be up
there as one of the top Welsh export's. We stayed on for a pint or three
before departing about 8.30pm. Pity about the cricket.


1st session Gas works.
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Scott Styris won the toss for the second evening running and elected to bat.
Once again as at Richmond we failed to bat out the 20 overs, capitulating in
the 19th for a paltry 115 just beating our lowest of 108 last Sunday at Old
Deer Park. Given that the averages of our top three are 9. 12, and 9. It
was'nt a major surprise to see that Ed Smith was left out. He was replaced
by a lefthander Dawid Malan who spent some time over compiling 11 which at least was better than the par of 9. There were cameo's played by Styris (3 sixes) in 21 and Godleman for 30. Compton and Keegan also managed a six each. However no one could stay long enough and find the gaps, to put a decent score on the board. Weekes went to an outstsanding catch by Rikki Clarke but otherwise when we went aerial we picked out the fielders.


2nd session.
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Quite frankly it was all over by the 5th over when the Brown Caps had 42 on
the board which doubled our 21 at the same juncture. Silverwood had bowled
Brown at 27 and there was some excitement in the 8th Brown Cap over bowled
by Johan when 2 wickets fell. The first was an ex Middx batter of unknown
name who had had an altercation with the Hampshire clientel the previous
evening after doing a 'Flintoff' around The Rose Bowl. This was not repeated
at The Gasworks. The second wicket was a superb catch at short mid on by
Eion Morgan to remove Rikki Clarke. That wrapped up the Middx evening as
Benning (as at Lord's) went on his merry way to 61no and victory for the
Brown Caps in the 14th over. This accleration being brought about in the
previous Peploe over which went for 20 including 3 sixes. As Worcester won
last night. This leaves us as the only team without a win. Can that change
at Southgate or will we complete a 100percent record?


Summation of 20/20 after 7 games
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Having seen 6 of the 7 games - what strikes me as the main difference is the
power of the oppo's top 3 batsmen. In all of the games, one if not two of
the oppo's top 3 batters have put in big performances which have ulitimately
won the matches. They have struck the ball with such power, that even
mishits have carried the boundary or at least, has enabled them to clear the
fielders. Our top three have looked diffident throughout as the scores would
indicate. On the plus side - Morgan has looked the pick of the rookies while
Godleman has batted usefully in the last two matches. Compton has shown
occasional power but not shot selection. Scotty Styris with 210 runs which
places him in the top seven (led by our old friend Justin Langer with 380
runs) and his 8 wickets with a reasonable economy rate, has had a useful
campaign. Johan also has 8 wickets but no runs. Weeksey has chipped in with
bat and ball. The ground fielding and catching have not always been of the
highest standard. So on to Southgate.