by The Professor » Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:34 am
On this day in 1949 the power swing between the Married and Single teams on Day Two.
At close of play last night, the Single Team were crying out for two of their batsmen to settle down into a mature adult relationship and get them some runs to put them back in the game. The two Georges, Armitage and Parr, did just that. They added a further 40 runs to take their partnership to 52 before Armitage broke up with Parr on 23.
Parr carried on and became the main source of notches on the Single team's run-scoring bedpost. He had little assistance from any of the lower order with the exception of last man in, William Nicholson, with whom he got 48 runs. Parr was last man out on 61 - another victim of James Dean. The Single team were all out for 180 - 23 runs behind their betrothed opponents. Dean and William Lillywhite shared the ten wickets equally between them.
The openers for the Married team exchanged luck in the same way as they had previously done vows. Whereas in the first innings, it was Dean that fell early and William Clark that salvaged efforts; this time out Clark went for a duck and Dean marched on. It was not Dean that went on to push the score up, however. This was done through a 63 run partnership between Billy Hillyer and Thomas Box.
As the day drew in three quick wickets saw fortunes swing back towards the Single men. In succeeding overs, Hillyer was sent back for 32 by John Wisden and then Nicholas Felix, punished for a shotgun decision, and gone for nought. The same fate awaited Alfred Mynn - another victim of Wisden - and the Married team were 82-5.
William Pilch saw Box through until stumps and the score was 116-5, meaning the Married team were 139 runs ahead of their single opponents.
"It has been said of the unseen army of the dead, on their everlasting march, that when they are passing a rural cricket ground the Englishman falls out of the ranks for a moment to look over the gate and smile."