Telling Tails: Sunday vs Falkland

Falkland arrived in the blistering heat with their usual development focussed side. Its a vital fixture for both teams, Falkland have great, fast and youthful players mixed in with a series of their coaches, its a chance for young players in the game to develop and a reminder for us to run harder between the wickets, utilise the pace of the delivery and place the ball through gaps in the field and soak up, as well as apply pressure. It's most certainly not a walk in the park.

With Captain Chris by the coast, it was myself (Tommy) who took the role of shouting across the pitch to move someone a yard or two around and deciding who should bowl and bat and when... something often out of my hands in T20s with our random ordering.

Sean opened things up with some delicious deliveries. And Warwick found Nick, via the underside edge of the bat, to send the visitors one down. Sean was once again unlucky not to get a break through of his own. Warwick continued, tempting Falklands other opener to a drive in the air through mid on, taken down low by the skipper, more delightful outside edge searching continued to give Warwick a wicket maiden! Falkland 16/2.

Economy was good, fielding was spot on and we searched for more. Ian Beamish and Rob joined us on debuts, and their committment in the field was great, putting their bodies behind the ball, chasing hard and saving runs throughout... welcome fellas, great to have you.

Jamie arrived having been 'on call' for work, threw on his whites (nice one Steph for bringing his gear down, top wife marks right there!) and had a bowl, straight into the batsman's pad which was nicely placed in front of the stumps. Falkland 3 down.

Not long after, Paddy lofted a tempter in from the Manor End which he delightfully caught himself to put further pressure on our visitors.

Jamie grabbed a second, this time missing both bat and pad as it slid through to dislodge the bails. All delightfully caught on camera by my Dad, who travelled 250 miles (each way) to take photographs of us all... a huge thanks to him and we will share the shots as soon as he's had chance to edit them.

Falkland, 55/5 off 15 overs. It felt we were really on the front foot and had a chance of an early tea.

Not to be, Falkland soaked up the pressure we applied, striking anything loose with vigour, but mainly staying put. We had drops, but all difficult to take, outstretched arms, over head height, falling short... I don't think we dropped a 'sitter', rather stopped the ball well before it bounced.

Nevertheless when Harry got the break through with Rob taking the vital catch, Falkland were right back in it at 138/6. Sean returned to the crease and finally got a prize of his own on his final delivery of the day. We packed the leg side with 6 fielders and the batter, who was hitting everything leg side slotted one perfectly into the palms of Harry.

Falkland finished 157/7 off 35 overs. We all worked hard to keep that down and a bit of luck might have seen us bowl them out inside the overs. Notable performances though were Jamie with 7 overs, 18 for 2 and Warwick with 7 overs, 23 for 2.

Teas were a delight thanks to Warwick's efforts with a delicious cake from Sean too. Thanks both (and of course to your wonderful wives too who I'm sure helped out)!

Batting. Requiring 158, we got off to a flyer, although Falkland were struggling and took time to find their rhythm. A series of no balls (most of which went to the boundary off the bat) hurt the visitors and significantly helped our score.

Nick and Laurence were a great opening partnership. Fresh off 90 overs the day before and 35 overs keeping against Falkland, Nick racked up 51*. Meanwhile Laurence smashed himself to 43 including hitting 4, 6, 2, 4 in one over. Wonderful to watch from square leg.

Requiring around 30 runs, Ian came to the crease, got a couple of sighters in and got his Ramsbury batting off the mark with a 4 through extra cover. At the other end Rob too slashed at a couple outside off before also smashing through the covers, sadly a fielder cut off a second debutant boundary.

Harry hit 22 quicker than I can make a cuppa and Warwick arrived ready to have a beer, one ball, smack... boundary. Done in under 25 overs. A marvellous display with willow in hand.

We go again next weekend away at Collingbourne.

Go well. Cheers.