The 2’s descended upon Great Waltham to begin the season for the second year in a row, however the bank holiday weather was not as kind as last year and as everybody apart from Jimmy Hay wore at least 3 layers. Jimmy, bizarrely, had just a t-shirt in gale force wind, hail and rain at 7 degrees.
We lost the toss (shock) and were unsurprisingly asked to bat by the home side. Captain Nob and last years POTY John Chadwick made a very quick start thanks mainly to some buffet bowling, reaching 47-0 from 7 overs, without much alarm. We reached 84 before losing our first wicket, Nob bowled round his legs for 38. John had seemed determined to run someone out and finally achieved his goal, ending his own innings with kamikaze run number 26 of this particular game, for a jug avoiding score of 47. Nick Phillips, Matt McDonald and Dicko batted nicely during their time at the crease and we looked on course for a very big score at 183-4 from 35, before wickets tumbled and we limped to 228-9 after 45 overs. Still a good score, but somewhere short of where we looked like we could get to.
Tea was excellent. There was so much we were able to have another portion when we came off the field at the end of the game. The chocolate cake was exquisite. 9/10
The weather calmed down by the time it was our turn to field but it was still freezing. Layered and woolly-hatted up we emerged after tea very full but keen to get going. Matt MacDonald bowled an excellent opening spell, beating the outside edge time after time and DQ was also asking questions of the batsmen, both bowlers finding the edge early on only for Phipps to drop both opportunities behind the stumps. POTY John finally got the breakthrough, shortly followed by Issey Croft on his 2nd team debut, Nick snaffling both chances behind the stumps to redeem himself. Young Issey was very impressive, having to negotiate some tough bowling conditions he showed maturity to adjust, shortening his run up and bowling around the wicket to give the batsmen little to hit. Kendall got the next wicket, a caught and bowled to prove he can both see and move, which meant both the home sides best batsmen were at the crease. We thought now they might kick on but quite the opposite, requiring 130 from 20 overs they were not able to, instead scoring at 4 an over with the required rate climbing all the time. When Patel finally connected with a big shot, Matt was able to take the catch in the deep and give John another wicket, 75 required off 8. We were in complete control by now, limiting the run scoring but finding wickets hard to come by. Matt finally got his deserved wicket to finish his 10 overs with 1-23 and the innings came to a close with the opposition finishing on 191-6.
A very good all round performance; the runs were shared out amongst the batsmen, all of the bowlers were accurate and economical but the most impressive was the fielding. We turned twos in to ones, backed-up throws and showed great enthusiasm on the most horrible afternoon for fielding. Well done!
Man of the match - John Chadwick
