2015

After an unpromising morning of rain and cloud, the forecast proved accurate and the game was on, with a surprisingly dry and hard track.

Skipper Dancer lost the toss (nothing new there) and Ivanhoe were batting in a 40 over encounter.

Suddenly with Evan and Parnell P departing for ducks Ivanhoe were 5-2 after 3 overs. Unplayable opening bowlers? Not according to new man in, Parnell R, who hit the next few balls straight to the boundary destroying figures and confidence of the bowlers. With 67 scored for the 3^rd wicket, Parnell R was caught for 43 and Bamville breathed a sigh of relief. The 4^th wicket also brought up 67 runs with Raj negotiating some early difficulties to score 42, in an increasingly dominating innings. Again relief for Bamville, at 139 -4 with a high run rate chalked up. As Collins dried up in the 40s the pace of the innings slowed but progress was maintained with everyone contributing. Collins scored a lucky 5 to bring up his 50 and, to the surprise of some, scored a maximum, finishing on 67. Dancer raised the rate at the end with some well struck boundaries, reaching 22*.

218 all out with a few balls unused – enough?

The usual excellent Bamville tea followed and Ives rolled out ready to win. Bamville had other ideas and had obviously been watching the recent internationals. They set off at 8+ an over rivalling R Parnell’s rate. Rarely has Hausler been so expensive and treated with such contempt! He was not alone. The 1^st wicket was a long time – too long- coming. Dropped catches and missed half chances were the story, and eventually the result was dictated by the Bamville opener from Stoke on Trent. He liked to chat and hit boundaries even more, scoring well over 100—if caught earlier????

Nevertheless the wickets began, and tumbled regularly , helped by an amazing catch from Kenchington and a spectacular direct hit run out from Parnell R- pity the regulation catches went down! Entering the last 3 overs, ahead of the run rate, Bamville lost their 9^th wicket.. but, unlike a Thai massage,  it was not to be a happy ending, despite some excellent bowling at the death  by Parnell Matt 5-0-20-0 and Evans reliving the more supple times with 3.1-1-8-1.

So a 1 wicket defeat , but a great game, as always with Bamville – what a fantastic setting and hospitable club.

Man of the Match – Bamville opener– sorry guys.. he dictated the result and we should have won this one!

Despite  a valiant effort by the bowlers the lack of depth of the Ives bowling on the day was exposed in this time game as after reducing Golden Age to 92 for 6 at one point the runs flowed in the latter part of the innings as the oppo chalked up 240 for 9 at tea, Mention must go to Matthew who opened with Andy H and took the first 2 wickets, ending up with 3 for 57 in his 10 overs, Andy H taking 2 for 41, Adrian 1 for 48, Saqib 1 for 53 and, in the latter part of the innings, Earle 1 for 28.

Not much to be said about the batting except for Richard who scored  a rapid 67 and looked very much on  or three figures before getting out, Of the rest only Matthew (18) and Earle (13no) made double figures as Ives succumbed to 136 all out.

Following an excellent but windy Friday night at Bath Races where one or two came out in front, the story of the two matches that followed was one of not scoring enough runs to put the opposition under any real pressure.

Playing what he says was his last game Lawrence (19) opened against Western Flyers on Saturday with Phil P (18) and after an opening stand of 33 and 23 from Richard, at 67 for 3 a competitive total looked achievable. Unfortunately from there wickets fell regularly with only Phil K (17) putting up any real resistance as the innings closed at a disappointing 125.

In reply despite 3 early wickets and Lawrence bowling 8.2 overs,1 for 38, and Adrian taking 2 for 26, the opposition easily made their target for the loss of only 3 wickets.

The story repeated itself on Sunday against Shirehampton at a lovely ground close to the Avon Gorge. Lacking depth in bowling due to a shoulder problem for Richard, Ives batted first and quickly found themselves 3 for 2 with Bob & Den back in the pavilion.  Richard with the help of guest player Ian started to steady the ship but after Ian’s departure and Richard going for a patient 29 again the batting, apart from Matthews cameo innings of 17 at the end, folded as the innings closed on 118.

Wickets were hard to come by in the Shirehampton innings with only Andy H and Den having any success as they easily achieved the win for the loss of only two wickets.

Tour highlight – Adrian’s emergency comfort break stop in a field on the way to the races on Friday evening,

So despite the results an excellent tour and thanks go to Phil P for all the hard work that went into arranging it.

On a dry and sunny morning it was a surprise when with an hour to go to the start it started to rain.  After a delayed start the game was reduced to 35 overs, with Adrian continuing his losing run with the toss, and the oppo electing to field.

The Ives innings didn’t get off to the greatest start and with 4 wickets falling for just 24, and with 10 overs gone it didn’t look like the Ives would get to the their desired goal.  Then first  Phil K (17) and then Saqib and Phil P  went into bat and with a hard working display Phil (35) and Saqib put on a partnership of 63 before Phil was caught off of the bowling of Connor. Another wicket fell quickly after that with Adrian departing for 1, but  another battling display from Ciaran (21no) in partnership with Saqib (43no) put on 42 as the Ives inning came to a close on 142 for 6.

Mayfield’s innings mirrored Ives with wickets falling in quick succession from the bowling of Adrian and Andy H. Andy H as ever keeping the economy rate low while taking wickets finishing his spell on 7-2-22-3. Then Bowden came in to bat adding runs for the oppo, scoring quickly before being run out by Richard for 36. With the introduction of the new bowlers the game was finely poised with Mayfield on the desired run rate but the Ives taking wickets.   Richard (4.5-2-25-3)  and Ciaran came on to bowl with Richard starting his spell with a maiden  before  struggling with  his footing on a slippery surface in the middle of his spell, before taking 2 the final 2 wickets.  While Rich was struggling with his footing ,Ciaran (3-1-3-2) bowled his best session of the season  taking 2 wickets including a  catch by Denis who  ‘didn’t see the ball until it was 2 feet in front of me’.Other catches went to Ciaran (2) and Earle (1)  ThevMayfeild Innings came to an end on 85 all out and another great victory for the Ives bringing this season to played 6, won 3 lost 3.

Man of the Match – Saqib

Lovely venue, Friendly crowd. That seemed to be the prognosis.

We turned up with 12 players, and donated 2 to their cause resulting in a 10 v 10 match.

Ivanhoe batted first, New player Andy hit 14, Adrian 23, and Richard high scored with 39 with a couple of
others (Andrew 16, Saqib 17) in the teens. Disappointing.. a larger score was to be had and we ended up with
only 132 on a pitch that offered much more.

Bentlley Heath batted and got the runs for the loss of 7 wickets despite some tight bowling from Andrew and some
good wickets from Adrian(2) and Richard(2). At times it seemed quite close, and despite our donated team mates throwing themselves
on their swords when batting for the Oppo (0 and 1? I think) we simply did not have enough runs on the board.

The Boddingtons tasted fine though and we soon cleared out their Fridge.

The skipper having lost the toss for the 4^th time this season Ives were put in to bat on  a green early season wicket. Den and Malcolm opened and after a slow start both departed with the score on 24 to be quickly followed by Phil K and Richard with only 55 on the board.  A small recovery with Bob digging in for the long term followed but at 82 for 5 a score of 150 looked the best that could be hoped for. Enter the fray to join Bob came Ali in his first game to plunder a quick fire 21 but with his and Saqib ‘s departure, at 114 for 7,  a big score still looked long odds.  But with Bob still there he was joined by Ciaran in an entertaining 8th wicket stand of 78 that took the score to 192 before both fell,  Bob for 72 and Ciaran for 34, and with overs running out a final total of 199 all out which had seemed unlikely an hour earlier.

After tea Andy H and Adrian opened and kept the Arkley scoring in check (aided by some outstanding fielding from Phil K) whilst taking valuable wickets early on in spells of 1 for 22 in 11 overs from Andy and  2 for 32 in 11 from Adrian with catches for Matthew and Malcolm. With the final 20 overs coming up it was the turn of Ciaran and Richard to take over and with further catches for Adrian and Bob, both took wickets in their first over to eventually reduce Arkley from 59 for 3 to 91 all out with10 overs remaining, Ciaran taking 4 for 17 in 6 overs and Richard 3 for 17 in 7.1 overs and a fine win for the Ives.

Man of the Match – Ciaran