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Result - Goodwood CC

Sun Jun 5th The Grannies win by 7 wickets

Match report

With the weather forecasters promising that the rain would get heavier as the afternoon progressed, the Grannies won the toss and elected to bowl first at Goodwood in what was to be a fairly wet 40 overs a side match. Tom Gibbs took the new ball in fine drizzle and bowled a tight five over spell, with Ben Yeates providing solid support running up the hill as he metamorphosed from top order batsman into opening bowler. However, the Goodwood opening batsmen (Gammon and Odell) played themslves in sensibly and at drinks the home team were 97 for 0 off 22 overs. It was Archie Clarke (replacing his father, who was suffering with a bad back) who made the breakthrough with his superbly flighted off-spin beating Gammon and allowing Tim Flood to execute a slightly unorthodox stumping. 111 for 1.

Although the Grannies bowled tidily enough and instances of traditional Grannies fielding were kept to a minimum, the home side continued to accumulate runs easily enough. It took a moment of magical fielding by Tom Gibbs off his own bowling to take the second wicket in the final overs; Tom stopped a well hit on-drive, swivelled and threw to run out the striker, Odell, for 72. With some lusty blows from the new batsman getting Goodwood to the giddy heights of 218 for 2 off their 40 overs, the Grannies could tuck into tea knowing that fifties were on the cards.

The match manager and Simon Baldey opened up for the Grannies and got off to a bit of a flier courtesy of some nicks for four from Knight and some crashing cover drives from Baldey. Sadly, Simon missed a straight one having just got to double figures but Chris Good replaced him and played in the same positive manner, hitting a brisk 25 before chipping the Goodwodd skipper's off-spin to mid-off.

The Grannies were in need of a hero and so James Battersby strode out to join the match manager. The ball was (cleverly) worked around during some tight middle overs, with only the occasional suicidal single and mis-hit on-drive causing any concern until the match manager finally found slip's hands with one of his knicks and departed for 57.

At that point there were about 12 overs left to play with and a little more than 70 runs still required. The award winning Hugo Llewelyn was the fifth man in and enabled the Grannies to accelerate the run rate at both ends as the light disappeared. As Goodwood struggled to contain the Battersby-Llewelyn partnership, there was an uprising on the field that led to the Goodwood skipper issuing a red card (for dissent) to one of his own players. The dismissed individual unsurprisingly picked up his bag and left, but whilst this did create bit more space in the home dressing room for the post-match analysis, it also created a bit more space in the field which was gratefully exploited by James and Hugo, who finished unbeaten on 64 and 47 respectively. Victory was wrapped up with 4.1 overs to spare.

The scorebook reads:
Goodwood 218 for 2 (Clarke 1-37)

Grannies 219 for 3 (Battersby 64*, Knight 57, Llewelyn 47*)

A great result in rubbish weather.

Match info

Last year's performance showed that it is possible for the Grannies to win at Goodwood. This is always a competitive game in front of the beautiful Goodwood House against a friendly team that puts on good teas at bargain prices!

Location
Goodwood Estate,
Chichester,
PO18 0PX

How to get there
Goodwood is situated just outside Chichester, only 60 miles from London, 30 miles from Brighton and Southampton.

By road From London A3
At Milford Roundabout take A286 via Haslemere and Midhurst. Before Chichester on leaving Singleton village take left turn over Downs past Goodwood Racecourse then follow brown tourist board signs for Goodwood House (approx 4 miles).

From Southampton and Brighton take A27 to Chichester
Follow brown tourist board signs to Goodwood House.

By rail There is a regular service from London Victoria to Chichester (1hour, 40 minutes), plus the coastal service from Brighton and Portsmouth. Buses or taxis are available at Chichester Station.