Lost! Colts 114 for 4, Long Marsden 115 for 3

Well it was a wet dull Sunday with a performance to match and a few of us had clearly been suffering from a rather too enjoyable Saturday night. So I put our first defeat down to a hangover!

I lost the toss and we were asked to bat. Graeme and Dave got off to a reasonable but not electric start, with Graeme retiring after the 5th over. I came in but we them lost both Dave and Trevor relatively cheaply with catches off the roof. John joined me, but sadly the scoring rate never got going against some slow accurate bowling. John also failed to make a mark as did Tim, but that left just a few balls with Graeme and I returning to take us to a woeful 114. I was never going to be enough.

We had to bowl really tightly and take wickets early to have any chance. Whilst the bowling wasn’t terrible, we only took one wicket early on and they reached 60 odd after only 5 overs. Tim and I took the last 6 overs and when there opener retired, the runs started to dry up, but they only need the odd single and wide to keep them on track. They reached our total in the 11th over.

Colts 180-4 v Totternhoe 119-5

The Colts were celebrities and Totternhoe got out of there in a hurry last night in a match that featured some excellent batting from The Colts. Regular captain Simon Williams had been voted off for the evening in a Bushtucker Trial and so the new camp leader for the night was Graeme S. ably supported by Mike H., Hugh S., Dave W., Murph & Spence. The toss was lost and The Colts were sent in to bat first in the cricket equivalent of trying to hit the various private parts of a kangaroo to the back wall whilst trying not to be run out by a witchetty grub.

Graeme (63*) and Mike (18) got their teeth in to matters quickly with 16 taken off the 2nd over and 21 taken off the 4th. 43 off 3 overs was a great start from the opening Ant & Dec. However, by the end of the 5th over the score had settled to 58-2 with Dave W. out caught trying to smack the ball straight as if it was a rogue fruitbat and Mike H. finally missing a good one to have his camp fire knocked over. From this point though the innings got away from Totternhoe as the 6th over went for 20, the 10th for 21 and the final one for a monster 30. Spence (31) batted like a man who had only had beans and rice for a week and was suddenly confronted with a cold buffet whilst Hugh (49*) started quietly but then opened his shoulders to smack several 5's, a 6 and an 8. To have failed to secure the public vote with 180-4 on the board would have been very surprising.

Spence and Murph took the early chores with the ball and the first ball produced a wicket - Spence fizzed down an in-swinger and Graeme moved down the leg-side like a young Jan Leeming to fumble the ball on to the stumps. What made the dismissal even more amusing was that the batsman was unable to work out in exactly what method he had been dismissed. He went in to the cage quietly shaking his head and muttering about 'phoning his agent. The bowling was tight without being exceptional and Mike H. won the immunity vote and the gold star by taking 2 calm wickets and completing a run out at the bowler's end. Hugh bowled some testing twirlers that spun like an outraged funnel-web spider and only Dave struggled a bit with his line and length. Even a last ball 10 by the laconic "Woody" failed to make much of a dent in The Colts' total as Totternhoe closed on 119-5. The Colts retired to the bar for a "Tooheys" or two with Don. F. who had arrived to lead the cheerleading whilst having thankfully left his cheerleader's outfit at home.

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Result: Final CC 122 for 5, Colts 123 for 2: Thurs 9 Nov 2100

It was another relatively comfortable win last night, as we passed their score with nearly 3 overs to go. It could have been so much shorter if I hadn’t had a nightmare bowling spell, at least I did one thing right last night in winning the toss for the 5th time out of 6.

We were a little short on bowling last night to the extent that Graeme opened the bowling, but he did well and bowled their opener in the first over. John Cowan opened from the same end and bowled very accurately conceding just 1 run from his first over. Graeme took a 2nd wicket caught and bowled and John completed a smart run out at the bowlers end. So, by the end of the 6th over, they were only 50 for 3 but with their best batsman retired. Mike and I then took over the bowling and my first over was not too bad (only 1 wide), then my 2nd and 3rd overs cost us 20 in extras. However again, another team conspired to lose a wicket on a free hit with a ridiculous run out. On the basis of the 4 no balls so far this season (and two run outs), these seems like a reasonable wicket taking tactic. Mike’s last over was also taken to task with one delivery going for a 10, with their opener just short of 50. This left them rather better positioned than they should have been on 122 for 5.

Graeme and Andy opened and both did well, particularly Andy. For once, the running between the wickets went well. Andy retired on 25 after only 4 overs and Graeme an over later as we reached 80 odd for no wicket after the first 6 overs. This left Don and I to continue, but my nightmare evening continued when I was out with a straight forward catch off the roof for 9, then Mike also fell to a good catch. However we were only 15 short of the target which Don and Andy completed rather easily.

Team: John Cowan, Don Farenheim, Mike Hughes, Graeme Sprowson, Andy Lynes, Simon Williams.

Semi-final result: Totternhoe 85 all out, Colts 86 for 1

An rather easy win last night against an underperforming Totternhoe, particularly their batting. I won the toss again, 4 out of 5, and inserted. John Callender opened the bowling and started well taking two wickets, one bowled and one stumped and conceding only 7 off his first two overs. My first over was a bit of disaster with 17 coming off it. They then had a longish, but unproductive partnership, reaching only 40 odd off the first 6 overs. The start of their final collapse started in the 8th over, when Dave took 2 wickets in 2 balls, the first with a low long hop, the 2nd with a good straight low delivery resulting in a plumb LBW. However, this was not a spell that Dave will remember fondly when in his next over when he delivered three low beamers resulting in free hits, but one of which ended up with the batsman doing the only thing he could do to get himself out, namely run out, so oddly the deliveries did not cost us too much. Mike complete the demolition with fine turning delivery bowling their final batsman, with two overs to go: 85 all out.

Our innings was a bit of procession, we didn’t try to run too many singles and they also gave us a fair number of extras, including a sequence of three balls that gave us 14 runs, going no ball, wide (off the first attempt of the free hit), then a 6 off the final fair free hit. Our progress was slow but safe reaching 50 odd after 6 overs, losing no wickets. Finally Graeme reached 25 and retired and shortly after Don was out to steeply bouncing delivery. That left Dave and I to complete the innings with 3 overs to go.

So we are in the final again, well played all.

Played: John Callendar, Don Farenheim, Mike Hughes, Graeme Sprowson, Dave Whitely, Simon Williams.