Carnes March Oval, Saturday 19 October 2024.

Wookey Hole CC 197-7 (35 overs: Charlie Benson 66, Alfie Arrand 2-30, Paul Bowman 2-38) beat St Anne’s Allstars 172-7 (35 overs: Matt Biss 67, Mark Benson 2-11) by 25 runs.

Report by Garreth Duncan – Photos by Garreth Duncan and David Healy (Wookey Hole)

After an enjoyable couple of days with everyone settled into our Ibiza tour, we headed off to Ibiza CC’s ground to face Wookey Hole, from Somerset, in our first match of the tour.

It’s fair to say the Wookeys’ tour squad was somewhat depleted. They’d already let us know during the week that they were short on numbers – and having arrived on the island, injuries and a sleepless night caused by a screaming baby hit them yet further, meaning they arrived at the ground with only six of them in a fit state to play. Ibiza CC’s Rupert Style boosted their numbers – and Vivek, captaining the Allstars, generously helped them out by lending them our best player, the brilliant South African Jan-Hendrik Rossouw.  Perhaps more stingily, Sir Viv also offered me up to the opposition, despite my dodgy shoulder limiting my cricketing ability even more than normal.

Viv won the toss and, with the 11am start meaning the weather was still cool and a bit of cloud cover overhead, sensibly elected to field. It quickly became apparent that Ibiza’s newly laid artificial pitch offered considerably more bounce than most of the surfaces we’re used to back home, and Gren Thompson and Alfie Arrand took full advantage ot it with excellent opening spells.  Gren struck first as the dangerous Dan Vasselli nicked a rising ball to Samer Hafiz behind the stumps, then Alfie weighed in next over as Style was stylishly caught at slip by Paul “KP” Bowman, returning to Allstars action for the first time since our France tour, to leave the Wookeys 13-2.

Neil Chambers and Mark Benson repaired a bit of the damage – but a double strike from the Allstars Foreign Legion put us in control once again. Nick Chadwick struck with his third ball, removing Benson to another smart slip catch by KP – but that ball proved to be the last of Chadders’ day as he pinged a calf muscle in the delivery. Joe Silmon completed the over and then grabbed a wicket of his own as Chadders took our third slip catch of the day – more than we’ve managed the whole of the regular season- to make it 56-4.

Charlie Benson replaced his dad at the crease, and instantly began to show his class with a flurry of boundaries.  With support from Dave Healy, he began to drag the Wookeys out of the hole they’d got in.  A couple of tough chances went down, and with a bit of uneven ground at the boundary edge making fielding out there treacherous, a few ones started to become fours. Skipper Vivek was especially unlucky to go wicketless in an excellent spell, and the score kept moving. It was only another unfortunate injury that eventually separated the Wookey pair, another nasty bounce resulting in Healy being hit in the stomach and unable to continue. 

Benson Junior had reached a splendid fifty before the returning Alfie finally ended his stay, first time tourist Kiran Chittajallu taking an excellent catch at square leg. KP, happily recovered from the shoulder injury that had cut short his regular season in Northern Ireland, was getting into a good rhythm and bowled Dave Izzard – bringing the two Allstars guest players together, as I walked out to join Jan. I kept KP’s first ball out before clouting a couple of boundaries off another of our tour debutants, Phani Sainath – but KP had the last word as he knocked over my stumps in the final over. Vasselli, returning to bat as lowest scorer, hit three boundaries off the final over, showing what a good job we’d done to get him out so cheaply first time around. Wookey Hole’s final score of 197-7 looked more than respectable – but with a decent batting line up and on a lightning fast outfield, we had a good chance of chasing it.

Charlie Benson looked just as handy with ball in hand as with bat, and got as much life from the pitch as the Allstars quicks had done. Sirmad Shafique, back on tour again having excelled with the bat in Portugal, was unlucky to get out as a nasty lifter hit him on the shoulder and looped up to Jan at slip. Kiran bravely came out at three and helped Matt Biss see off the openers – but when the recovered Healy trapped him plumb in front, we were 39-2.

Even if (as he tells us) his many other 2024 cricketing appearances have been less successful, this season has been far and away Matt’s finest for the Allstars. Settled in his favourite opener’s anchor role, and with the cricketing nous and good humour to encourage all around him, he has become a huge asset to our team – and having got himself set, he began to accelerate as he passed fifty.   With Samer providing stout support and hitting a few crisp boundaries of his own, with 16 overs left we were 93-2 and with a shout of a first overseas tour victory since our triumph in the Dordogne in 2010.

But the Force was strong with the depleted Wookeys, and with a big bit of help from the Allstar rebels, they rose again to take the game from us. Chambers broke the stand as Samer was caught on the cow boundary, and then Matt’s splendid innings ended as Gren caught him at point. Joe and Sai continued the Allstar resistance – but Jan had a hand in both their dismissals as he caught Sai before bowling Joe. KP gave Mark Benson a second wicket as he was bowled trying to attack, and though Gren and Alfie both hit out with some crunching boundaries in the closing overs, the target proved just beyond our reach.

So the first tour game ended with the reinforced Wookeys tasting victory. But more importantly, a fantastic day’s cricket and a whole set of new friends made. We had much to look forward to as we both faced Ibiza in T20s the following day – but would either side survive Saturday night in San Antonio?