The board has managed to settle the contract disputes and the cricket will now be allowed to continue. The outcome of the settlement is being kept strictly secret but it is rumoured that several players, including injured star Malone were forced to take massive pay cuts as the board seeks to exercise prudence.
The first game back was in the county championship against Yorkshire. CW got off to a good start when the Yorkies chose to bat and lost Mcgrath for a duck, trapped in front by Nath. Lumb was also dismissed cheaply Vimes taking the catch off the bowling of Hall. Richardson and Wood put on 37 but the introduction of Chapman led to the destruction of the middle order. Richardson was first to go, and with the runout of Craven coming next, the rest of the order meekly surrendered to the spin kings magic. Chapman took 6-26 and Yorkshire crashed to 123 all out.
Vimes and Bennett ensured a decent start with an opening partnership of 94, but the Web then collapsed to 130-5, before Cloete and Gray rescued them with a partnership of 129. Cloete recorded a brilliant 135, with Bennett scoring 52. The Web posted 326 all out.
Yorkshire did rather better second time out than the first and the top 3 offered good resistance first up. But after reaching 108-2 they slumped to 136-6 as Chapman adn Cloete put in good spells. They were rescued from complete humiliation by a partnership of 104 between Hamilton(45) and Wise(60) but the total of 250 left just 48 to win. Chapman again starred with the ball taking 5-47.
The chase was not without a wobble as CW lost 3 wickets, but the result was never in doubt and Chapman picked up the MOM award dexservedly.
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Cricket Web v Yorkshire
County Championship - D1 - 8 May 2004
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Yorkshire - 1st Innings
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M Wood c Vimes b Chapman 46
A McGrath lbw b Nath 0
M Lumb c Vimes b Hall 2
S Richardson c Blewy b Chapman 22
V Craven run out 3
C White c Vimes b Chapman 1
G Hamilton b Chapman 17
G Wise c Gray b Hall 19
C Silverwood c Weber b Chapman 0
R Sidebottom c Blewy b Chapman 1
M Hoggard not out 0
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Extras (nb4,w4,b3,lb1) 12
TOTAL (all out, 54.1 overs) 123
**********************************************
O M R W
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A Cloete 4 0 19 0
D Chapman 19.1 4 26 6
N Pickup 11 1 36 0
D Hall 12 3 21 2
P Nath 8 2 17 1
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1-5 2-12 3-49 4-55 5-60 6-86
7-119 8-119 9-123 10-123
Cricket Web - 1st Innings
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S Vimes c White b Silverwood 41
S Bennett c White b Silverwood 52
T Weber c McGrath b Hamilton 13
Blewy b Sidebottom 5
A Cloete not out 135
BlueFox c Wood b Hamilton 4
J Gray c McGrath b Sidebottom 36
P Nath lbw b Silverwood 16
N Pickup lbw b Hamilton 0
D Hall c White b Silverwood 0
D Chapman b Silverwood 1
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Extras (nb8,w4,b3,lb8) 23
TOTAL (all out, 100.4 ovrs) 326
**********************************************
O M R W
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C White 3 1 15 0
C Silverwood 19.4 2 48 5
M Hoggard 23 3 74 0
G Hamilton 25 2 98 3
R Sidebottom 30 5 80 2
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1-94 2-119 3-124 4-126 5-130
6-259 7-291 8-304 9-312 10-326
Yorkshire - 2nd Innings
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M Wood c Vimes b Chapman 33
A McGrath c Hall b Nath 25
M Lumb b Chapman 49
S Richardson lbw b Cloete 10
V Craven c Gray b Chapman 4
C White st Vimes b Cloete 9
G Hamilton c Blewy b Chapman 45
G Wise run out 60
C Silverwood b Pickup 1
R Sidebottom not out 3
M Hoggard b Chapman 0
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Extras (nb2,w2,b5,lb2) 11
TOTAL (all out, 94.3 overs) 250
**********************************************
O M R W
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A Cloete 13 5 37 2
D Chapman 31.3 7 47 5
N Pickup 14 2 51 1
D Hall 16 4 44 0
P Nath 20 1 64 1
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1-43 2-87 3-108 4-123 5-126
6-136 7-240 8-246 9-250 10-250
Cricket Web - 2nd Innings
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S Vimes b Hamilton 25
S Bennett lbw b Sidebottom 10
T Weber lbw b Silverwood 6
Blewy not out 5
A Cloete not out 2
BlueFox
J Gray
P Nath
N Pickup
D Hall
D Chapman
----------------------------------------------
Extras 0
TOTAL (3 wkts, 21.2 overs) 48
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O M R W
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G Hamilton 3 0 4 1
C White 1 0 2 0
C Silverwood 3 0 9 1
M Hoggard 7.2 1 21 0
R Sidebottom 7 2 12 1
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1-21 2-34 3-46
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Cricket Web won by 7 wickets
Man of the match: D Chapman
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Injured:
Nichani(6 days - Bruising), Malone(19 weeks - broken finger)
Second Team:
Brad Smith(25* & 5*), A Chaulk( 3* & 14*), Ferd (17 & 12), BK Smith (1 & 151), Eclipse ( 47 & 9), Nathan Hoy ( 106 & 19), D Jellett(47 & 267), A Master(36 & 45), S Craze(141 & 26), D Richards(7 & 80, 1-21 & 1-17), Kearsley(4 &27, 2-116 & 2-144), Mr Wright(2 & 33, 1-42 & 2-78), R Thomas( 5 & 25, 2-98 & 2-44), T Halsey(2 & 11, 4-52 & 3-36), L Camps( 17 & 20, 0-34 & 2-68), N Scott( 1 & 9, 1-68 & 1-38)