Result: Redbourn 132 All out, Colts 133 for 4

We ran out winners again last night, but not before we stared down the barrel of defeat. I won the toss and inserted as normal and threw the ball to debutant Dave Whitely. Whilst not quite as expensive a first over as from JC on Tuesday, it still went for 20. Their openers continued to bat steadily with their skipper nurdling the ball into the cage door or gently into the side wall on a regular basis and somehow we just didn’t manage to pick up the ball cleanly. Some of our attempted earlier run outs were comical, fumbling pick ups, poor throws and Trevor flapping around like a sealion. During this period we really didn’t put any pressure on them, so at 70 odd for no wicket, things were not looking good. Mike finally made a break through with an LBW, which was to be the only bowlers’ wicket in our haul. Gradually their running became more erratic, their scoring rate declined leaving the last man in with score only just past 110, all the others being run out. As on Tuesday we then missed another easy opportunity to close the innings out with another run out, before finally we achieved this was an excellent throw from Mike from the back wall to the strikers stumps. This left Redbourn 132 all out, a much lower figure than looked possible half-way through their overs.

Mike and Don opened and not for the first time, Mr Hughes was in the cage without facing after the first ball of the match, 0 for 1, two balls later Don managed to run himself out, leaving us at 0 for 2. The final ball of the first over led to another very tight run out decision, but Mike (as umpire in the cage) wisely gave us the benefit of the doubt to save us the ignominy of 0 for 3. At this point things did not look good. Slowly we started to rebuild the innings with Neil leading the way taking apart Redbourn’s opener with three 6’s in one over. By the half way point, Neil and Dave had brought us back to just behind the required rate, before Neil retired on a well earned 25. Dave was playing very well, but fell shortly after Trevor’s arrival after a good pull bisected the sidewall and neatly returned the ball to the bowler who ran out Dave as he backed up. So again we had two new batsman, 3 wickets down and some work to do. Sadly for Redbourn their later bowlers could not quite keep up the pressure, Trevor smashed a short ball for 6 and I added two drives one for 6 and another for 8, missing the 10 zone by a whisker. This suddenly had put us well ahead of the required rate. Trevor then retired on 25 but he had only a couple of balls rest before he returned when I then lost my head and charged their off spinner and was stumped. This left Trevor and Neil with 20 odd to win with 3 overs remaining which they easily completed with an over to spare. So a good batting performance by the lower order in the end.

Team: Neil Berry, Trevor Bridger, Don Farenheim, Mike Hughes, Dave Whitely, Simon Williams.