Marshall Hatchick Two Counties Over 60s v Surrey Over 60s – Wednesday 2nd June 2021
Surrey Over 60 220/4 (Mark Redfern 101*, Dvaid Taylor 57)
Two Counties Over 60 209/7 (Jerry Wedge 51, Richard Polley 39)
Surrey Over 60 won by 11 runs
The main square at Ipswich’s Clay Hall ground provided the venue for this match, as the weather changed for the better, and warmer, and on winning the toss, the visitors not unreasonably chose to bat first, with the openers passing 50 before Martin Southwell beat Graham Thornton’s bat. Peter Taylor neared his personal half-century, before hitting a catch, neatly taken by Chris Martin. Simon Gray, after confirming to your correspondent the spelling of his name, failed to reach double figures, but then Mark Redfern, running like a man half his age, dominated stands with Paul de Alwish and Peter reaching his 100 in the 45th and final over of the innings. The four wickets that fell were spread around, with no bowler taking more than one, although Martin Southwell’s 9 overs cost only a niggardly 16 runs.
After self-supplied teas, the Two Counties eleven started their reply, the opening partnership lasting for nearly the first quarter of the innings, and after captain Richard Polley retired hurt, after a heavy knock on his heel, John Gallant and Jerry Wedge doubled the score, before the former was run out. The next three wickets, including the returning Richard Polley, fell relatively cheaply, with Jerry Wedge just making his half-century before departing two balls later. The Surrey fielders seemed to be well placed, as, although there were innumerable singles (well they are numerable, I cannot be bothered to count them) there were only two further boundaries scored, and the hosts fell eleven runs short of their visitor’s 220 runs.
Thank you to the scorers and umpires and to Ipswich CC for hosting the enjoyable game and also to Surrey for the post match presentations.