Belmont & Edgware suffered a 10-wicket defeat in a friendly match against North Harrow.
In bright, sunny conditions, a 10-man Belmont and Edgware opted to bat first on the slow, uneven Old Lyonians wicket. Openers Blasebalk and Mayer applied themselves well against some skilful new ball bowling and after five overs the score had reached a steady, if unspectacular 10.
Particularly notable during this period was Mayer’s refusal to play his trademark swipe over mid-on. This budding partnership was cut short as Blasebalk popped a short ball to cover and shortly after, Mayer was bowled.
This brought Altmann-Richer and Taylor, at nos. 3 and 4 respectively, to the crease. Taylor perished early after he was bowled, but Altmann-Richer batted steadily and with good technique to stabilise the innings with next batsman Jacobs. The pair started to tick the scoreboard over, with Jacobs able to score the occasional boundary on the leg-side.
Just as both batsmen were beginning to settle and express themselves, Belmont’s aspirations of a decent total were dealt a hammer blow when Altmann-Richer was smartly run-out. As the old cricket adage goes, with one wicket comes two, and next batsman Paul Levy was back in the hutch the same over after skying an attempted slog over mid-on.
Steve Shaw arrived at no. 7 and batted well to stop the rot. Indeed, Jacobs and Shaw looked to be inching Belmont, once again, to a competitive total, but having reached his 20s relatively serenely, Jacobs then suffered what can only be described as an unforgiveable mental aberration when he top edged North Harrow’s weakest bowler to square leg.
Shaw continued to bat well in partnership with Ledger, timing the ball crisply on the leg-side. However, with the tail exposed, once Shaw was caught in the covers, Belmont were mopped up for an under par 82.
Belmont’s fortunes did not immediately improve in the field as opening bowler Jacobs was smashed for 6 off his first ball after dropping short. That said, his bowling soon improved and he started finding a better areas, although the occasional full toss was heartily feasted upon by the North Harrow batsmen.
Mendel, from the other end, endeavoured hard and looked threatening when he pitched it up. However, on a sluggish pitch offering variable bounce, captain Jacobs soon turned to slower bowlers Taylor and Ledger to stem the flow of runs. Both were superb and were duly rewarded with good economy rates, with Taylor causing particular problems for the opposition batmen.
Similarly, slow left-armer Berlofsky went for just 2 runs off his 2 overs. However, Belmont’s total was simply far too low to defend, and North Harrow reached their target within 20 overs of the innings.
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