Report by Daniel Mortlock:
Fielding first, we entered into a war of attrition with Longborough & Sezincote's top order. FAS first-timer D. Teacher perhaps regretted agreeing to take the new ball in what turned out to be a marathon spell of 15 overs, 5 maidens, 3/47; ?. Williams (2/24) got off comparatively lightly, being spelled after 10 overs before being brought back for an 11th towards the end of L&S's innings, which was eventually declared closed on a seemingly generous 149/7.
This, however, was quickly revealed to be a seriously challenging target as FAS fell to 22/3. Coming in at number 5, R. Bishop at least stopped the collapse before being dismissed for 15, after which surviving opener Richard Jones took over. At this stage he was on about 30*; but, perhaps accurately judging our lower order to be vulnerable (nobody else made more than 5), he went on the attack, eventually finishing up scoring a superb 75. This was 68.18% of our eventual total of 110 all out, the greatest relative contribution to an innings in FAS history.
Report by Daniel Mortlock:
If, as Robin Williams famously quipped, "cricket is like baseball on valium", then today's FAS vs. Hereford Chameleons game was like cricket on valium.
Having been inserted on what the scorer recorded as a "firm & damp" pitch, the FAS top order struggled just to survive against some quality bowling from the duo of Flay and Flynn, with the former finishing with the extraordinary figures (across two spells) of 21 overs, 9 maidens, 5/32. After 31 overs we'd reached the giddy heights of 48/3, as John Colman (24) shared the two slowest partnerships on record for FAS with Kevin Hood (20) and then David Singleton (6). Things did eventually pick up thanks to Ben Colman (50*), but we didn't end up declaring until the end of the 68th over, making our eventually respectable 180/8 the longest ever innings for FAS.
Our defense started well, as ?. Brownless (1/19) and John Colman (2/12) both made early breakthroughs, after which the Chameleons almost matched our slow-scoring efforts earlier in the day, taking 47 overs to reach 142/7 to secure the ultimate "bore draw".