Cricket

After the dreadful weather of the last three weeks and with their own ground waterlogged, Warlingham travelled to Ripley more in hope than in expectation. However, the morning rain stopped on the way down the A3 the ground at Ripley had drained remarkably well.

The Home team won the toss and chose to bowl first on a pitch that was slow but proved to be benign. Skipper Alex Pizzey provided the centre-piece of the innings with a typically aggressive 116 off 91 balls. He had solid support at first from Dan Chrystie (29) and then from John Morris (42) and Ian Pizzey (18). Warlingham supporters are particularly pleased to see Morris back in form after a long lay-off with an ankle injury. The short boundary on one side meant bowlers were punished for the several loose deliveries offered by the rather rusty Ripley attack although Alex hit two large straight sixes as well. In all he hit twelve 4s and five 6s and Warlingham declared on 235-7 just before half way after 46 overs, leaving Ripley with 49. Mike Harris was the most successful bowler with 3-47 from 10 overs.

After a superb tea, Ripley began their innings positively with Keith Alvey making the most of the generosity of the Warlingham bowlers who were just as out of practise as their hosts had been earlier, until he missed a straight one from Dan Chrystie when on 43 with the score at 51. Josh Bent began his innings slowly but was soon making the most of the short boundary and the run rate accelerated. He passed 50 in the 26th over with a 6 off Tim Slade and the 100 partnership came up in the 30th over. By the time he eventually hit Slade to deep mid-on and was caught by Dan Chrystie – who had dropped a similar chance two overs earlier, he had made 96 from 78 balls with eight 4s and six 6s and Ripley need only 58 in 14 overs, with 8 wickets in hand. Powell was bowled in Slade's next over for a patient 32 and the scoring slowed as Slade and Mahesh Amin conceded only 3 runs in 4 overs. Shakeel Khan and Toby Baddock then played a few shots and ran a few scampered 2's and 3's that took Ripley close but Khan was caught (and stumped) by Alex Pizzey off Amin for 24 and several others came and went quickly. With wickets falling and runs coming the result was in doubt until the last over when, in gathering gloom and plunging temperatures, Baddock, on 15, rushed down the wicket and became the second Alex Pizzey/Mahesh Amin victim, before Mike Harris struck successive 2’s to win the game with only 2 balls and 2 wickets to spare. Tim Slade bowled 18 overs and survived the onslaught from Bent and the short leg-side boundary to take 4-99.

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