Rayne was the venue for the Totham 2’s promotion charge this week, we fielded another strong side as we looked to cement our place in the top two.
Nob lost the toss and we were asked to bat on a decent looking deck with a short boundary. The bowling was slow and accurate, which is not really what our top order enjoy and this soon became apparent as John, Josh and Phipps departed after struggling with the lack of pace. This left us on 63-3 and requiring a rebuilding job from Snail and Nob. Both played sensibly for a while, feeding off the loose balls and seeing off the openers before scoring more freely against the change bowlers. Nob brought up his 50 with a top edge sweep to the short boundary, however a change of bowling began to tie him down and he skied a short ball on 69. Banny and new boy Will came and went so Matt ‘The Finisher’ MacDonald entered the crease and immediately tucked in to some balls outside off stump with his absolute gun bat, one cover drive was exceptionally easy on the eye, before Snail departed for an important and well constructed 68. Matt kept up his not out record with 29 excellent runs and Jimmy Hay joined the party late on to bash a few and we finished with maximum batting’s points on 230-8.
We trotted over to the pub for tea at the interval and we’re greeted by bowls of sausages, nuggets and chips which spread excitement, maybe a little too much as we ate it all without a thought for the rest of our team mates and the opposition. This was flanked by sandwiches, a bit of cake and some fruit. Decent - 8.5/10
We took to the field with a decent total to defend and Matt made the early breakthrough, Ali caught behind by Phipps, who kept well, for 15. Rayne were up with the run rate after 10 so pace off the ball was required and on case Olly and Banny for his first 2’s bowl of the year. We knew the pitch had plenty of turn and bounce and Banny extracted all of it, causing the batsmen problems, when he wasn’t pitching it short. Banny himself got the next wicket, the other opener Ayres was deceived by one that skidded on and clipped the stumps, this was the cue for number three Dawson to tee off. Batting 20 yards out of his crease, he was dropped twice in quick succession (no names mentioned) both regulation, much to the frustration of all in the field. Banny struck again, a nasty, rising delivery struck Bull in the elbow which was then followed by a yorker to trap him in front. 130-3 at drinks and we had it all to do, Bull was the key wicket. Jimmy McVicar Shagger Hay came in to the attack and promptly extracted turn and bounce, delivered with plenty of control and finally the key wicket of Dawson, caught in the deep by Banny. We were now in control and Matt came back to give us one over of medium-slow, followed by one over of fire to bowl skipper Ellis. From then on it was just a matter of time, Jimmy claimed two more, Olly one and Nob a run out to round off what should have been a routine win but was slightly less so.
We gave away too many runs through midfields, I’d say 20-30 and dropped a couple of regulations catches but we did enough. We need to improve this for the games coming up. Nob and Snail got runs but the two stand out performers were two lads who started the season in the threes and are now 2’s shoe-in’s. Banny has been in the runs recently but today it was his bowling and catching which did the damage today but just pipping him to Star Man is Jimmy Hay with 3-21 off 7, a catch and some quick runs at the end. The members of the clergy will be delighted and I’m sure he thanks the lord for this accolade.
