On the warmest day of the year so far, the mighty 3s fancied their chances against St.John's Billericay, as they had a much stronger team than in previous weeks. The return of Jess following injury & Snail, after 3 years travelling to the ground, gave us hope.
Tim lost the toss & we were in the field, in the sunshine, the heat & the hard ground. The Wheeler family, minus Dad & Grandad this week, opened up the bowling. One St.John's opener liked the ball pitched up & the other opener liked it short. They started off well, not giving any chances away & scoring quickly. But, James & Tom brought it back , both bowling good overs. James gave way to Max, who bowled very economically, beating the bat regularly. Jess replaced Tom & it was like she'd never been away, with a great line immediately. We got to drinks with St.John's on 80-0, on top due to lack of wickets, but the run rate was slowing down.
After drinks Owen came on & with a ball that deserved to be in with the horses, managed to fool the batsman & hit him on the pad directly in front. A few overs later John replaced Jess & in the first over tempted the other opener to loft it to James. Totham were in the game & bowling well, apart from some generous full tosses from Owen. John bagged another 2 wickets, catches by Max & Owen, as St.John's tried to push the score along. James came back on, replacing Owen & got one wicket, bowled. John then enticed the batsman down the wicket, only to miss it & give Tim a stumping. Next ball went for 6, next ball, LBW for a 5-fer. The unhappy batsman left the middle admonishing the umpire, as John was "turning the ball a mile", cue much laughter from the 3s. James finished off with Tim getting another stumping (don't ask!)
Owen finished off with a tight final over, leaving Totham to chase 183.
The Wheelers were doing tea & organised a banquet, a religious experience for 5000 souls as per the Bible, so tea took a while.
John & John opened up, in no trouble until John C continued his season's strategy of hitting the ball to a fielder before he reaches 10. John D then was on the receiving end of Tickle's index finger, out LBW. Taite played a short cameo, before stepping back, swiping sideways & missing the ball completely for another wicket. At not many for 3 we were in a little bit of trouble. However, from that point on Tim & Snail took charge. Tim toyed with the opposition - caught out off a no ball, missed at least twice by the keeper & diving in to beat a throw when he took a quick single. But, he also played some crisp attacking strokes, hitting the bad ball very hard. One stand out shot was the tennis smash from another no ball. Snail showed all who hadn't seen him bat why he is the top run scorer in the club's history. He defended straight, left the ball when necessary, found singles when the ball went into spaces & stroked the ball majestically to the boundary when faced with a poor delivery.
Both passed 50 within a few balls of each other & St.John's realised that they were not going to win, as both batsmen grew in confidence as the run rate went up. It was a case of when, not if, Totham were going to win & this was achieved in the 35th over. Tohham won by 7 wickets, due to the best parnership of the season so far, & need to back this up with more victories in the next few weeks.
