Telling Tails: Sunday vs Inkpen
Cricket weather is back! And it's a wonderful thing. Throughout those cold, winter nights and rainy days we've been dreaming of days like today; hanging out, playing cricket and of course, WINNING!
We had high hopes a year ago at Inkpen, only for the effects of the Ramsbury Ball the evening before to tell their own tale on our performance that day.
By comparison, we were a spritely bunch today. Uncle 'Boom Boom' Al back at the popping crease and chucking that leather down got us off to a great start, just one run off the first. Jeremy fancied aligning with just 1 run off his opening half dozen too.
As we entered the 6th over and holding the openers tight, Jeremy grabbed our first wicket, or rather Rich did with a beautiful catch (potentially worth the back pain) to take them one down. Moments earlier Will was close to a 'worldie' on the boundary line, diving hard to his right, but it wasn't to be.
As the Boom Boom man got deep into his spell, it clicked together and he grabbed two in two overs to put Inkpen on the backfoot, including holding their top batsman to just 6 (50* last year). With Jeremy all too aware of Al's skillset on show, he decided he'd grab a second wicket and a maiden with it, incredible work.
Our opening pair kept things tight as we ended the 14th over 53-4. Jeremy gaining figures of 7 overs, 2 wickets for 21 (inc a wicket maiden)... a kind of 9.3/10 level performance and enough to get man of the match without needing to bat.
Will and I paired up through the middle of the innings and kept Inkpen to a similar run rate. Despite my best efforts, I could not make a breakthrough, being the soul bowler without a wicket. But in more positive news, just a two boundaries against my bowling showed the true quality of the fieding team around me. 'The Wall' has clearly been giving tips! Inspired by what he'd seen Jeremy do from the same popping crease, Will grabbed his own wicket maiden to take Inkpen 5 down. As The 25th over rolled around Inkpen were stuck averaging around 2.5 runs an over.
Desperate for headlines, Sean had a memorable end to the innings, missing the edge of the bat, missed catches (unlucky Lee) and absolutely unbelievable missed run outs. The most interesting of which involved a batsman mix up and what should have been a regulation throw to Chris and a simple bails-off swipe... but Sean had other ideas and took it upon himself, with great gusto to throw the ball direct at the stumps with the kind of energy and effort one would need to get the ball in quickly from the boundary edge... and as the ball sailed past the stumps, missing everything and everyone, the laughter commenced... 50p mate.
Still desperate for that headline, and no longer confident that anyone in our team can take a catch off his bowling or that he could get a simple run out from 2 yards, he knocked over the stumps from the full 22 yards, not once, but twice to take a lovely two in two and send Inkpen 7 down.
Meanwhile Warwick brought his own flare to the opposing end with some wonderful peaches and he too brought home a beautiful wicket maiden in the penultimate over.
All in all, we held the visitors to 156-8 off 35. Time for tea.
Our thanks go out to Justin and Laurie for creating "the best tea I've had in years" according to Rich. It was a blinder. And whilst we're on thank yous, to Colin too for crafting a beautiful surface to play on, Dave for cutting the outfield and later umpiring the second innings.
Multiple sandwiches and slices of cake later, Warwick and Lee opened the batting. Job done, lets go home. It was Boom Boom Al on Thursday, but today it was Crash Bang Cowen... 53* in a very quick paced batting attack. Warwick was run out in the most unfortunate of fashions as the bowler got a hand to a stunning straight drive from Rich which caught the stumps as Warwick was backing up, but not before he'd smashed a sensational 6 with Sean's Uzi bat, available from all good Uzi retailers.
Captain Chris, Snooky and Rich (aka Graham), grabbed the middle order with both hands and added a further 49 to the total between them and as myself and Sean took over, the game was all but done... but not before Sean tried to the grab those headlines once more, all be it with equal assistance for me. Our recent nets session included some great tips from Pete on running quick singles, only for me and Sean to get it totally arsed up. Thankfully the close call ensured we aligned and avoided an embarrassing run out... and we still got the single after all.
We brought home the win on the 24th over with the loss of just 4 wickets. An all round team effort and fabulous performance. Well done all, especially to Jeremy for that MoTM bowling. Outstanding.
Bring on our next game, Sunday 9th June, The Beehive [H]!
Cheers. Go Well.