Dorridge CC v Knowle & Dorridge CC
Bham & District Premier Cricket League.
Last September when Dorridge CC gained promotion to join local rivals Knowle & Dorridge CC in the Premier Division of The Birmingham & District Premier League, this first fixture was the one both clubs were looking forward to and the large crowd was enthralled by one of the best games of cricket seen on the ground for many years.
Dorridge Skipper Dave Ball won the toss, asked K&D to bat and was soon rewarded as Aaron Thomason bowled Richard Johnson for 3 when the score was only 9. Phillips and Hill added 53 before Thomason had Hill (25) caught be Perry and when Ball struck in the same way to dismiss Baker (18), K&D were 92-3. Alex Phillips’ fine innings of 53 came to an end at 105 and when K&D Skipper Dave Smith was stumped by Jamie Atkinson off Iftikhar Ahmad, K&D were rocking at 129-5 with half the overs gone.
Jack Grundy then joined Sam Reddish and the game took a dramatic turn as the pair compiled a century partnership, but with K&D on target for 280+ and former DCC player Reddish having reached a brilliant century, Grundy was well caught by Saqib Akbar off Dave Ball for 31.
Reddish was then caught by Nathan Myers off Ball for 113 that included twelve 4’s and three 6’s in only 109 balls before two more wickets for Aaron Thomason put a brake on the runs as three wickets fell in the space of 19 runs. Knowle & Dorridge finished on 263-9 off their 55 overs with
Ball and Thomason each taking 4 wickets.
With K&D less than two miles down the road, they had plenty of travelling support and the Dorridge patio was packed as Valeed Butt & Dave Ball started the Dorridge reply.
Butt showed his intentions as he drove the first ball through the covers for four and he and Ball soon rattled up 34 before Butt was adjudged LBW to Mottram for 13. Jon Webb then came to the wicket, making his first appearance of the summer for Dorridge because of WCCC duties and he and Ball carried on the good work. The hundred came up after 23 overs when Ball (32), looking to repeat a pull to the mid-wicket boundary, picked out Jack Grundy who held a great catch. Hong Kong’s captain Jamie Atkinson then joined Webb and started with a four but fell on 111 as having called Webb, who had just reached his 50, for a very sharp second couldn’t beat Jack Grundy’s excellent arm. Jack was having a good day! 111-3, 153 still needed.
That was the end of the wicket taking though as, slowly at first, Webb & new batsman Mavarick Perry took the game away from K&D with a disciplined exhibition of strokeplay and quick singles.
The long list of targets were set (by the Dorridge faithful) and passed: (1) Lead down to double figures (2) The 200 up (3) Perry’s 50 (4) The 250 up and (5) The winning runs; a punch for 4 through mid on by Jon Webb. The bar was going to do well.
DCC had reached their final target of 264 for 3 in 48 overs, with Webb & Perry finishing with an unbeaten stand of 153. The Dorridge supporters went wild and those from K&D sportingly acknowledged the returning batsmen Jon Webb 119* and Mavarick Perry 82*. Between them they hit 25 fours and 3 sixes off a bowling attack lacking much variation.
General concensus was that it was the best game seen at Dorridge for many years, few could remember two centuries in a game and we await the return leg on Sept 13th.
