Rankins visited the second team this week, with both teams having lost last week. Nob won his first toss of the year and inserted the visitors on a pitch which looks worn, grassy and showing all the signs of a deck which has been played on far too much.
The start was delayed as the mower broke down on the outfield, it seems the mower is the only thing which is more fragile than Taite, so we marked the boundary around it and cracked on in true village fashion. George Baron returned to the 2s this week after 3 weeks off where his activities included head banging, painting his nails black and attending a festival where everyone hates everything, which seemed to have revitalised him as he found a good line and length straight away and found the edge and the catch was taken by Phipps behind the stumps. Unfortunately this brought the opposition captain Prini to the wicket and he introduced himself with an enormous six over the pavilion. The next wicket didn’t arrive until the introduction of Kendall who bowled Warner with his second ball. Jonny Hewer (1-36 off 10) and Kendall (3-58 off 9) bowled mostly with control and regular wickets fell but the one we wanted most, Prini, did not. He continued to dispatch balls in to the bull, the road and surrounding fields when he chose and his 112 accounted for more than half of the visitors runs. George Davis picked up 3 late wickets which we richly deserved and the visitors finished on 220 all out.
Max Glitter laid on the teas as George is incapable of making anything other than toast, and what a tea it was. Tea Rating - 8.5
With Dicko absent this week Nob deputised at the top of the order with the intention of giving the visitors a fast start but he was caught and bowled for 17 early on. The slow, low pitch was proving difficult to score on, John and Cailean crept to 56-1 after 20 overs, but we really needed to crack on. The drinks break brought about a change in tempo, and Totham began to wrestle back control but they were stopped in their tracks when John was caught off the bowling of Prini for a patient 50. It was the 3rd wicket which sparked a collapse of epic proportions, with Cailean who made 57 departing with the score on 152. We then lost the last 7 wickets for 40 runs as the incoming batsmen found it difficult to accelerate on such a tough deck, Prini taking 5 wickets and 2 catches to go with his 112 to more or less single handedly win the game for his side.
Most definitely one that got away. We bowled and fielded well on the whole but we lacked that one great performance to win us the game.
Star Man - George Davis
