Match Report
Sunday 30 May -v- Brasted Invicta at Valence School
Under typically overcast Holiday Weekend skies, we made our return visit to Brasted, keen to improve on our showing and gain the win that should have been ours on Day 1 of the season. Grey and Rhino came into the eleven at the expense of Lardy and The Harvester, but we still bore the look of a side in rampant form. Six out of six lost tosses found us once again at the crease and Darkie ably supported by Chucks, forged another solid opening stand. Craven, eventually won the sweep-stake on JB’s survival, correctly predicting his downfall before double figures, but not before a formidable 43 had been placed on the board. Mark continued to accumulate the lion’s share of runs, during, all too brief partnerships with Coco, Home Dressing Room and Ted; before the Turbo charged STB managed to find his range. Darkie finally went for a well deserved 84 out of a total of 109 at that stage. With time elapsing some sacrificial lambs were sent to the middle to bolster the scoring rate, enabling us to close at 166-8 from 41 overs.
Spud was determined not to allow for any excuses if Brasted opted out of the run chase and set a cordon of close catchers to compliment an eager slip cradle, in an effort to force Brasted into playing their shots. Steve and Low Count put us firmly on course to victory with a twelve over burst that returned half the Brasted side to the pavillion, with only 31 on the board. To their credit our oppo continued their quest and were rewarded with ‘free’ runs if they could hit straight. One such chappie helped himself to a maiden half-century, largely from the benefits of one over from ‘Old’. With our pacy duo apparently running out of puff, the skip’s cunning flight and turn were employed to deal with the remainder of Brasted’s cast. Victory was achieved with about eight overs to spare, through two sharp takes from the ever improving Neil behind the wicket. Much amusement was taken from Nobby’s unsuccessful attempts to grab the three necessary catches to take him to 100, notably from the childish Slack ‘Vice Nobby’ Timms and the equally juvenile ‘I've got more catches than runs Webb’. As with our earlier meeting Brasted found solace in buying jugs for just about anything you could think of and we gladly helped in their completion. Spud skilfully avoided Nobby Mayes and his travelling facts and figures brief-case, but was eventually cornered, to be told of the career record of the day’s debutant fifty maker. Another fine night in the Queens Head followed and more bouts of amnesia the following morning for the Skip.
