Win v Tottenhoe Thurs 24 November 2000

Team: Graeme, John Ca, Andy, Kevin, Tim S and Simon

We all but crushed the only other unbeaten team with a team of 5 and a half players, given that Kevin could hardly breath due to a cold. That was aside from from three deliveries in our innings when we all too nearly came off the rails.

For the first time in 4 games I won the toss and decided to bowl. Also for the first time this season, we produced a quality bowling performance. John Ca and I opened the bowling and in the first over they were 4 for 1 and by the end of the 6th they were only 40 odd for 3. On a cold night the were heaters on and this aided John’s rather useful inswingers and also for the first time this season, I managed to bowl consistently. Kevin and Tim then kept things tight, with Tim taking the 4th wicket courtesy of a fantastic stumping from Graeme. We took the 5th wicket with two overs still to go via a runout, but we could not quite finish them off, leaving them at a rather poor 92 for 5.

Tottenhoe were not level top for nothing and bowling is their main strength. However, Tim and Andy got us off to a fantastic start with 50 off the first four overs. Then Andy was fantastically runout at the bowlers end backing up just too far. Graeme came in and carried on the good work. However, the start of the 6th over very nearly saw us fall apart. Tim had just retired having reached 25, when first Graeme fell runout. He hit a fine drive to extra cover that would have been four ourdoors but indoors he ended up neatly hitting it straight back to the bowlers stumps via the side wall. I then faced my first delivery and according to my team mates received a rather useful inswinging yorker that I missed! Enter Kevin who also managed to miss his first ball and was bowled. So that left us tottering at 64 for 4, having lost 3 in 3 for no runs. However, John Ca batted very calmly given all the balls remaining along with Tim to see us home without any further problems.