So here we are 12 weeks into the season, yet only two (now three!) match reports. Why is that? Well, I don’t really like writing up losing games (who does) so I’d promised myself not to write another until we won a game. At this rate that will likely be in 2020 - so I best stop crying about losing and get on with it.
The latest visitors to Bull Meadow were Great Baddow. The away fixture had been a close encounter with the 1s losing by just 13 runs. This result was not so evenly matched. Baddow won the toss and elected to bat on a very green wicket. Captain Cooper was not so disappointed with this and admitted he probably would have bowled first anyway. We started well enough with Big Time Bowen taking two early wickets but a good partnership between Wilson and Taylor swung the momentum back in Baddow’s favour. During this middle phase we really struggled to have any control over the run rate, or take any wickets with only Jonny Hewer returning respectable figures (2-45 from 10), as the game gradually got further away from us. Wickets in hand at Bull Meadow in the final few overs is always key, and this allowed Baddow to swing freely and post a highly competitive 289-8. Big Time did return to the attack and was our standout bowler for the day taking 4-53, but we were poor in the field dropping 6 fairly simple catches and that simply isn’t good enough at this level.
Thanks to Joe Davis for forcing your brother to do teas. An excellent array of sandwiches supposedly including fillings such as BLT and fish fingers, and some nice looking cakes to top it off. However, I was last in the queue, so by the time I got to the table, I was only left with an egg mayo, a little bit of pasta, and some off brand jaffa cakes and there was definitely no chance of seconds. Disappointing. 6.5/10.
To give ourselves the best possible chance of staying in the Premier League, we really needed to go unbeaten at home in the second half of the season. This fixture against Baddow was particularly crucial as they’re down there with us at the bottom of the table. Unfortunately like a lot of games this season, the batting has been the issue and we collapsed yet again at the top of the order, with none of the top four making significant contributions. A good partnership between Lumpy (63) and Muttly (21) ensured we weren’t completely embarrassed, but once they were out the tail fell away without adding much more to the score, 160. Which is, our highest score of the season, if you can look at the bright side of that. A 129 run loss though was extremely disappointing.
Away to OCs next weekend. All points are vital from here on out, even just to bring some respectability back to our campaign. We’ve really got to keep fighting and try to find a way to turn this run around.
