With another win under the belt, the Rioteers arrived to the\nbeautiful ground of East Meon looking to build on the unbeaten run. Amazingly,\nthe Hilliers were first to arrive and the toss was done and we were in the\nfield. The team was a core of youth with the odd experienced head. Captain\nMartin handed the ball to his two sons to take the new ball. A Hillier on his\nfavoured ground, where earlier in his career had smashed (chipped) a stump in\ntwo, opened up running up the hill and bowling into the two openers. B Hillier\nhaving been given the choice of end bowled downhill unfortunately he struggled\nwith his line and length causing him to bowl short and wide. This gave Rinaldo\na good warm up to add to his pre match runs around the pitch of collecting the\nball from the point boundary several times. A Hillier made the break through by\nknocking back the off peg of the veteran opener. He then continued to bowl\ntight trying to attack the leg stump of their Captain at number 3. Unfortunately,\nB Hillier continued to bowl short wide rubbish, he was even pulled back over\nhis head for four. Leaving the score at 45 \u2013 1 with A Hillier only having gone\nfor 8 runs. A Hillier then very cleverly ran his fingers down the side of the\nbowl to perform a slower ball bouncer which the opener could only push around\nthe corner to the returning T Powell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
S Cook replaced Bertie, he found turn in his first over and\nclaimed the wicket of the defending number four which was expertly snaffled by\nthe glovework of Bickford returning to the duty of keeping. T Powell returning\nto the side after a 5-year sabbatical was thrown the ball to replace A Hillier\nat the same ground as his last appearance and was amongst the wickets straight\naway. His left arm over was heaved to B Hillier who did his best to headbutt\nthe ball at deep mid-wicket, to get rid of the dangerous captain, who had earlier\nsurvived an lbw shout that even Becca Evie and Charlie in the crowd had agreed\nwas crashing into middle stump. Cook then got the batsman to watch one on to\nhis off stump and Powell with another caught this time by a confident Sudip at\nmid-off. Powell finishing on return with 2-13 off 3 and Cook with 2-6 from 4. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were replaced by Rinaldo and a young Wilf Hillier.\nRinaldo bowled virtually every ball down the corridor of uncertainty asking\nquestions of both right and left handed batsmen. Wilf marked his run up and\nthen charged up the hill, and second ball had a chance put down by big cousin\nTom. But second over he claimed his 1st<\/sup> Rioteer wicket at the age of\nonly 12, but credit has to go to B Hillier. As he takes another absolute\nstunner at square leg, I didn\u2019t get a great angle of the catch only saw a\nsprint and then dive to take a right handed catch at full stretch. With Dessie\nand Val, who were watching on to say: \u2018after 33 years of Rioteers cricket I\nhave never seen a catch like that\u2019. But Wilf takes all the applause as he\ncontinued to bowl a steady line and length, which led to another close LBW\nshout to be turned down on the impact. This didn\u2019t put off the young pacer as\nagain had another big appeal for an LBW and this time the finger followed, 2 for\nWilf. At this stage Robert was disappointed as he too had bowled very well,\ninto his last over Robert bowled his only bad delivery of the day but this would\nbe his only wicket as B Hillier took another more regulation catch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One wicket remaining it was B Hillier who finally joined the\nparty get their number 11 to chip one to point, after M Hillier had a missed\nstumping by Bickford, this was Bicker\u2019s only \u2018mistake\u2019 behind the stumps as\notherwise he was taking everything. Rioteers chasing 115 to win with B Hillier\nfinishing with 6-0-38-1, M Hillier 4-0-6-0, A Hillier 10-4-23-2 (he\u2019d got over\nhis turned down LBW by now), Rinaldo 6-3-7-1 and W Hillier 4-1-30-2. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tea was \u2018class\u2019 and range of sandwiches and cakes including\na Colin the Caterpillar which was a bit of a game changer. Interestingly, a\nyoung Branch thought his fielding efforts meant he deserved the head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sudip and Bickers headed out to start the in theory\ncomfortable chase. But it was rather uncomfortable watching maiden after maiden\nafter maiden, until Bickford was caught out by a very sharp chance at short\nleg. J Hillier entered the fray and after watching the maidens from the\nboundary decided to then watch them from the wicket. There were several\ntextbook forward defences though. Sudip then fell with the score 4-2 off around\n10 overs, this got the returning C Branch still steaming having been forced to\nretire with the chance at a 100 on debut at Bramshaw. Branch stopped the\npattern of maidens with some crunching shots of authority as Meon began to rotate\ntheir bowlers. J Hillier tried to follow Branch and bring it to the bowlers\ncausing him to fall for a gritty 1. A Hillier then joined Branch at the crease.\nA Hillier looked to rotate the strike with singles and allowed Branch to take\nthe lead as the openers returned as the chase began to gain momentum. Branch\nthen heaved their Captain for 6 then 4 which broke this streak of 6 maidens. A\nHillier continued to bore the fielders, bowler, crowd and himself, but Meon\nbowlers continued to bowl a good line with well set fields, and he is now\nfighting to salvage a half respectable average. As the partnership ticked over\n50 Branch looked to bring the match to a close with some big ball striking,\nhowever he pinched the strike after refusing to run an easy 2 and next ball he\nwas bowled through the legs trying to cart the ball back to Sussex. He fell for\na solid and entertaining 80. Cook joined A Hillier and he went dot, six, out. B\nHillier then joined his brother with under 10 required, he almost gifted Meon\nhis wicket first ball but mid off dropped an absolute dolly much to the\nannoyance of the non-striker. The pair then quickly knocked off the runs to\nfinish the match with overs in the bank. B Hillier finishing on 8* and A\nHillier 25*. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With another win under the belt, the Rioteers arrived to the beautiful ground of East Meon looking to build on the unbeaten run. Amazingly, the Hilliers were first to arrive and the toss was done and we were in the field. The team was a core of youth with the odd experienced head. Captain Martin … <\/p>\n