The 2’s visited Navestock this weekend, looking to avenge the early season defeat at Bull Meadow. Nob lost his 12th toss in a row but the all-stars were surprisingly asked to bat by the home skipper on one of the hottest days of the year.
Mutley and John opened up and refused to play a shot for the first 3 overs, until John shoulders loosened and he began finding the boundary. Mutley hit 2 lovely fours but was bowled by one which kept a little low, bringing Snail to the wicket and a 73 run partnership ensued, with both batsmen looking in good touch. John (42) then fell to a stroke of misfortune, he top edged the spinner in to his chin before the keeper caught it, and left the field with claret dripping down his chin. Nothing a plaster couldn’t fix for the northerner. Enter Foxy; who for a change took a while to get going, (By a while I mean 2 overs) dispatching bowling to all parts, although by his own admission, it was probably the least fluent of his big scored this year due to some good bowling from Simmons and P.Patel. Snail made a good 37 before being given lbw, but Foxy (98) was able to draw on support from Stu and Tabby to keep the runs flowing. Matt McDonald scored an entertaining 24* at the end and Totham finished on an above par 255/7.
Teas were very good. They have an oven in their kitchen, not to mention the bar. Very nice set up here! 9/10 Tea Rating.
Navestock’s innings started cautiously, McDonald and Baron repeatedly beating the bat inside the first 10 overs but frustratingly no wicket, the home side reached 75/0 off 15. The return of Kendall after his injury brought the breakthrough in his first over for 6 weeks and together with Jonny Hewer we began to wrestle back control, however it took until the 24th over to bat our second wicket, and the prize one of captain Simmons, who skied a Jonny Hewer delivery and the bowling took a comfortable catch himself. Jonny took another wicket to make it three and then John Chadwick was introduced. The Navestock players didn’t know what had hit them, a mixture of slow, dipping, seaming deliveries seemingly bamboozled them and in just 7 overs John had taken 5-20 which I would hazard-a-guess are his best figures ever, excellent work from the best all rounder in the club. Jonny Hewer and Matt Mc helped mop up the tail and we secured a valuable win by 49 runs.
An excellent day at a lovely ground with a great group of blokes and friendly opposition. And the beer was so cold. Great day all round.
Star Man - John Chadwick. On any other day it would have been Foxy, but you can’t argue with a 5fer.
