HELPERBY 3RD XI VS STUDLEY ROYAL 4TH XI

Scorecard


Saturday saw a successful nail biting finish for the 3rds thanks to a well paced innings from Cupes who crafted an excellent 71 not out.

Wining the toss we put Studley in on a very green looking wicket. A quick and accurate opening spell from Stuart Cross (6ov, 1m, 11r, 1w), supported by George Swiers (4,0,17,0) and Chris Fryer (10,2,30,2) kept the Studley batsmen pinned back. The Studley juniors batted well and several times threatened to put together big partnerships only for Helperby to achieve breakthroughs at key stages through tight bowling and good work in the field (catches by Tom Jackson, George Swiers, Chris Fryer and Peter Mitchell).

Stuart Cross returned for another tight spell (6,2,9,1) supported by the skipper (10,2,33,2), Rob Challis (4,1,15,0) and John Wilson (4,1,19,2). However we were unable to take the last two wickets to gain the bowling point with Studley finishing on 145 for 8 off 45 overs.

In reply Helperby lost the early wicket of Peter Mitchell although runs continued to come from Alex Clayton who had at least three lives as he kept managing to find the one Studley fielder who couldn’t catch.

Cupes held up one end after Alex departed for 26 and Tom Jackson for 1. With the arrival of Rob Challis the pace began to pick up although at this point Cupes had scored around 17 runs from 20+ overs and was doing one of his better Chris Tavare impressions. However experienced showed in the way he paced his innings as runs began to flow after the departure of Rob for 13 and George Swiers for 0 with a flurry of boundaries, quick singles and even some twos and threes!

The match entered its final 8 overs with Helperby needing 40 runs. Cupes was supported by Stuart Cross (8) and Chris Fryer (7) and brought the requirement down to 11 runs from 2 overs. At this point the skipper gave another cameo performance with a waft across the line and was bowled first ball. Luckily for him Dan Spink showed more sense and ran a number of quick singles with Cupes.

Entering the final over Helperby needed 6 runs. Two singles off the first three balls left Dan on strike with three balls to go and four needed to win. Studley brought the field in to cut out the single and could only look on as Dan pulled the next ball for a fantastic four.

A good all round performance by Helperby in the field had restricted Studley to a gettable score and thanks to Cupes' excellent 71 not out (and support from the junior batsmen) we managed to get there. Just.