BBS Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup Final 2017
The second British Blind Sport Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup Final to be played at the cradle of cricket, Broadhalfpenny Down in the glorious Hampshire south downs, was an excellent day. The hosts were very generous and welcoming and support, as ever, from the Primary Club was essential in making this game and the BBS cup competition happen every year.
The match day programme had a carefully selected cover showing Charles Ronayne of Metro, Northants and Essex Tigers in action for Metro against Warwickshire; the day included a minutes’ silence closed with a well deserved round of applause in memory of Charles. The weather was excellent for cricket as bright blue skies with just a few friendly white clouds meant plenty of warm sunshine but with just a little breeze.
The cricket started with Justin Hollingsworth of Warwickshire, cup winners in 5 of the past 6 seasons, winning the toss and asking Sussex to bat first. Missing their injured skipped, Sussex started with Joe Harrison and Alex Towers. This pair batted carefully to blunt the opening bowlers’ spells, but this meant that the scoring rate was slow. The openers only managed one boundary before both falling victim to Asif Ali in his first spell, with a bowled and an lbw. His brother then chipped in, shortly afterwards, with a run out to dismiss Dave Daniels and leave Sussex wobbling a little on 41 for 3.
Dan Field had come to the crease at two down and had now had time to settle and so bring his excellent form from the season into the middle. He started by bossing a stand of nearly 50 with the hard hitting Toby Collins only contributing 12, before perhaps the first example of the great wicket keeping on display throughout the day from both sides. Toby looked for a little reverse scoop off the bowling of Mark Turnham which Gerald Porter on seeing the shot set up anticipated and was able to grab the top edge. It seemed a big total was going to be tricky with just 84 scored. However Dan now started to control the game with the bat dominating the ball and Dan able to score almost at will.
He kept the strike carefully during a partnership of 58 for the fifth wicket; ended only when Luke Sugg ran out Ian Morris, but Dan’s domination continued to the end as Matt Greenhough sacrificed his wicket with a run out to allow Dan to score 2 off the last ball and finish on 121 having struck a six and fourteen fours. This places him fourth on the all time list of top scorers in the cup final; the last three finals having now produced four big hundreds, when only one had been managed before that.
The second innings started in exactly the opposite way to the Sussex innings as the Bears captain, Justin Hollingsworth, looked to score quickly from the first ball, he raced to 28, with a six and three boundaries, before being bowled in Dave Daniels’ opening spell. This was 46 for 1 with the Bears well ahead of the rate and the scoring did not slow when Nathan Foy joined Luke Sugg in the middle as he sped to 20 from just eight balls before trying to repeat the shot that had earned him a six over square leg only to be caught by the well placed Joe Harrison just inside the rope. So 77 for 2, but with two big hitters gone the game seemed well balanced as Luke Sugg looked to try and repeat Dan’s feat of controlling the innings.
At the half way stage the Bears were on 97/3 well ahead of the 64/3 Sussex had posted at the same stage but soon after the break lost two wickets with the score on 100, Luke caught by Dave Daniels on the full and then Hassan Ali bowled by Dave Daniels; at 100 for 5 their chance of winning had gone it seemed. Chris Styles scored a few including two good boundaries and the reliable Mark Turnham also reached double figures but no one else was able to score and the innings finished in less than 21 overs with the difference in scores being 61.
The day ended in front of the excellent pavilion, with Peter Tuke, the chairman of the Broadhalfpenny Down Preservation Trust, assisted by Pete Sugg from the BCEW cricket committee handing the cup to the winning captain, trophies to all the players & officials, and the man of the match awards to the two worthy winners, Dan Field (Partially Sighted) & David Daniels (Total).
Scorecard
BBS Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup Final 2017
Sussex Sharks v Warwickshire Bears
At BroadHalfPenny Down, Hampshire
Saturday 26th August 2017
Umpires: Alan Pearce & Darshak Patel
Scorers: Steve Field & Steve Hollingsworth
Warwickshire won the toss & chose to field first
Sussex Sharks Innings
J Harrison Bowled A Ali 15
A Towers Bowled A Ali 9
D Daniels Run Out (H Ali) 8
D Field not out 121
T Collins Caught G Porter Bowled M Turnham 12
I Morris Run Out (L Sugg) 4
M Kippling Bowled J Hollingsworth 0
M Greenhough Run Out (G Porter) 3
M Oliphant not out 0
Did not bat: C Reynolds
Extras:( 8NB, 11W) 19
Total: 30 overs, for 7 wickets, 191
Fall of wickets: 1-23 (Harrison), 2-38 (Towers), 3-41 (Daniels), 4-84 (Collins), 5-142 (Morris), 6-145 (Kippling), 7-189 (Greenhough).
Bowling
Bowler-overs-maidens-runs-wickets-no balls-wides
L Sugg 6-0-18-0-0-0
J Hollingsworth 6-0-46-1-2-3
N Foy 5-0-28-0-0-4
A Ali 6-0-45-2-4-2
M Turnham 4-0-30-1-0-2
H Ali 3-0-24-0-2-0
Warwickshire Bears Innings
J Hollingsworth Bowled D Daniels 28
L Sugg Caught D Daniels Bowled D Field 25
N Foy Caught J Harrison Bowled D Field 20
G Porter Hit Wicket Bowled D Field 2
H Ali Bowled D Daniels 7
M Turnham Hit wicket Bowled D Field 12
A Ali Run Out (D Field) 0
C Styles Bowled J Harrison 11
E Alphonse not out 0
C Lanwarne Bowled J Harrison 0
Extras:( 4B, 1LB, 1NB, 19W) 25
Total: 20.5 overs, All Out, 130
Sussex Sharks won by 61 runs
Fall of wickets: 1-46 (Hollingsworth), 2-77 (Foy), 3-81 (Porter), 4-100 (Sugg), 5-100 (H Ali), 6-102 (A Ali), 7-129 (Turnham), 8-130 (Styles), 9-130 (Lanwarne).
Bowling
Bowler-overs-maidens-runs-wickets-no balls-wides
J Harrison 4.5-0-14-2-0-2
M Kippling 3-0-14-0-0-2
I Morris 4-0-49-0-0-7
D Daniels 2-0-19-2-1-4
A Towers 3-0-11-0-0-2
D Field 4-0-18-4-0-2
Man of the Match Winners
Totally Blind: David Daniels (Sussex)
Partially Sighted: Dan Field (Sussex)