21-05-2011 - Home - TVL - Finch vs Amersham

Loveday's Ton in Vain

The third match of the Thames Valley League division one campaign saw as visitors to Finchampstead Amersham. The sides last met at this level twelve seasons ago.
Winning the toss and electing to bat Finchampstead opened with Gary Loveday and Russell Lane. They found the going difficult in the early stages against good seam bowling by Jaco Nel and Stewart Rogers. With 18 only on the board Lane was caught off Rogers then at 36 skipper Matt Jones followed having clipped a ball to mid wicket also off Rogers. At 51 the third wicket was down as Geoff Isaacs was a third catch for Amersham.
Good runs from Loveday and Dan Lincoln clawed Finches back and to see the 100 up before Lincoln was lbw to spinner David Atkinson who had joined the attack with Andy Viney. Tom Ansell soon followed lbw also to Atkinson  and when Simon Bell was unlucky to be run out after a slipping over out of his ground Finches were 146 – 6.  But with Gary Loveday in supreme form and joined by Sam Taylor their positive strokes saw the 200 up as well as the century for Loveday in the 48th over.
Just before the end Taylor was caught in the deep leaving Finches to close on 227 – 7 in the 52 allotted overs.  Gary Loveday was not out 127 at the end for a magnificent innings.
The batting was opened by the Viney brothers Rob and Andy for Amersham. They faced the seam of Sam Taylor and spin from Matt Harper. When Tom Potter replaced Harper he had Andy caught at point with 31 on the board. But wickets were hard indeed to obtain as with Chris Fleming at the crease with Rob Viney 77 were put on before the next success for Finches. This was at 108 when in the 29th over Matt Harper having rejoined the attack from the pavilion end caught and bowled Fleming. Then at 139 Abhay Meyer was lbw to Russell Lane.
Opener Rob Viney continued his sound batting with skipper Luke Jackson and Dan Colquhoun joining with sound strokes to place the visitors in a good position at 176 – 3. But then Jackson was run out attempting a second and one run later Gary Loveday bowled Viney for his fine 93. Then the sixth fell at 178 as Joe Shuttle was caught off Harper. So Amersham lost 3 wickets for 2 runs to be six down. But with Colquhoun still at the wicket and joined by Stewart Rogers good shots saw Amersham towards the target . Although Rogers was bowled by Loveday the visitors won at 229 – 7 with three balls remaining. There were two wickets apiece for Loveday and Harper.
A fine match and deserved chase by Amersham yet with Finches always striving for wickets throughout.

Statistics

Finchampstead won the toss and elected to bat
Result	Lost
Scorers	Bob Lane
Score
Finchampstead CC Scored 227 for 7 in 52
Amersham Scored 228 for 7 in 47.3

Player Performance - Batsmen

Player	How out	Runs	Catch	Stump
Matt Jones	Caught	9	0	0
Simon Bell	Run Out	6	0	0
Matt Harper	Not Out	0	1	0
Russell Lane	Caught	6	1	0
Gary Loveday	Not Out	127	1	0
Dan Lincoln	LBW	23	0	0
Tom Ansell	LBW	4	0	0
Sam Taylor	Caught	27	0	0
Geoff Isaacs	Caught	3	0	0

Player Performance - Bowlers

Player	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Simon Hards	5	2	16	0
Matt Harper	17.3	3	74	2
Russell Lane	6	0	44	1
Gary Loveday	4	0	31	2
Tom Potter	5	1	18	1