Telling Tails: Sunday vs The Beehive

It's been 4 years since we last beat The Beehive, a team who have a very similar spirit to their cricket as us, and a fixture many of us are buzzing about in the week beforehand.

With just 10 players filling spots in our team sheet, including two debuts for Hamish and Ian we were a few stings short, and many of our regular hive struggling with injury or buzzing off abroad, we would have our work cut out... but not without entertaining the supporters on the sidelines!

The Beehive got off to a thumping start. Their openers punished anything off a length or line and, although my opening three overs where my most economical that I've ever bowled... don't worry, I evened things out in my 4th over as I set a new personal record for wides. Sorry lads! More net sessions required to fix that bug!

Jeremy gave the batters a few scoring chances, but not without catching opportunities for those eagerly awaiting in the field. With the gloves off for a change, Captain Chris, in the 3rd over, flew to his left at slip and at full stretch just got a hand to the ball, unfortunately a ricochet with the ball, the ground, the seam and Chris's chin caused an unfortunate stinger of a cut to a man already playing with (another) broken finger. 50p for the drop mate, even though you managed to get to the ball in the first place and stop a certain boundary!

A trip to A&E required to get some attention to fix it up. No worries, 9 men left and hopefully we don't lose anymore. In the meantime, The Beehive capitalised on our fielding gaps... although we did manage to double-Malcolm in the field as our opposition kindly stepped in with an extra fielder, namely Malcolm, who promptly slotted next to our own Malcolm... cue field setting confusion for several overs.

As we changed up our bowling attack, we found ourselves 10 overs gone with The Beehive flying on 81 for no loss. We needed to slow things down. Two golden spells from Warwick and Laurence did just that. Some great variation from both as their openers hit 50 each to retire during this time, but our lads most certainly made it interesting in the process and slowed them down as much as possible to soak up some overs. We experimented in the field and looked to take catches with in-out set ups which brought several half-chances and some heroic efforts in the deep. On other days, they might go our way, but those opportunities didn't stick as we might have hoped.

Warwick and Laurence teamed up perfectly though as an absolute stinger flew towards 'The Wall', who took it (according to Nick) with his eyes closed. Our own take on Ivan Toney it seems, a beauty nonetheless and a vital wicket in our bid to slow down The Beehives scoring rate.

As the overs ticked on, Warwick picked up a vital maiden, and during his 6 overs impressed with just 3 boundaries scored against him. Sterling work to hold The Beehive back!

With Rich buzzing to be back playing and feeling fresh with Nick on the gloves, the wicket-taking chances continued. Deliveries fluttered through and a nick was taken by Nick whose quick hands grabbed us an additional wicket through a stumping... although it should and maybe could have been more.

The captain returned quicker than many of us thought possible... maybe he has some secret blue lights in his car for cricket-based-emergencies?

Jeremy waited patiently on the boundary as the honey trap worked to take out a big-hitting batsman as I cushioned one down with a ball to go, leaving Rich with a 4-fer, a vital contribution whilst Ian opened his Ramsbury bowling account with some beautiful spin and a wicket for his efforts, The Beehives collection after 30 overs a very respectable 196/6.

Back to the apiary for the queen of teas, a huge thanks to Jeremy for this, with his glamorous assistant in Malcolm.

We had a task ahead to chase this score down. Not just because we needed over a run per ball, but because The Beehives bowling attack is varied and strong... we've not hit over 140 past them for a while!

We needed a strong start... but The Beehive got it. We lost Nick, Warwick, Chris and Laurence for single figures, and arrived at the 10th over at 23/5!

Needing just short of 9 an over, it was an uphill task! Hamish scored his first runs in his brand-new-cricketing-career and the celebration to survive an over was brilliant and much enjoyed by the onlooking crowd!

Rich and Jeremy pushed on quickly, scoring above the required rate at around 10 an over. We hit the 20th over at 110/6... looking much better and on outside chance of a win. As Jeremy retired for his second 50 this season, I joined Ian at the crease who was batting brilliantly on Ramsbury debut, chasing runs whenever he could and helping to tick the total over. An unfortunate, but plum LBW, meant Malcolm arrived at the crease, who scored more than Laurence and matched half of our captain's total before I forgot he was over 70 and duly ran him out when pushing for a single.

With hope not lost, Jeremy returned to the crease. Ticking the score over as quickly as we could, we needed some boundaries to truly hit our target. As we opened things up, Jeremy chased one that he'd usually block and our colony was all out, falling short at 130 off 24 (and a bit) overs.

Time for some amber nectar and a natter.

Another lovely day at the rec, and despite not being the right side of the win, nevertheless an enjoyable outing as we welcomed new players into the fold and did our best to chase down a large target.

We look on to Tuesday evening when we take on Nationwide House (Sir Mitchell's old team) in our next T20, let’s hope the rain doesn't postpone things.

And then Sunday when we take on Challow & Childrey.

Both at our glorious home ground.

Go well. Cheers.