An early game this week, 2pm start, due to ice hockey, saw the indoor team facing Boreham. Of course, the main drama this week was not the game, but the AGM on Friday evening. The AGM traditionally is a boring affair & the evening only comes to life during the election of the captains. This year, for the first time ever, the indoor team captain was elected by the club's members. John would like to thank all his supporters who contributed to his election campaign which saw him duly elected against fierce competition. Luckily, no recount was needed.
So, to the game. First job of the duly elected captain was collecting match fees. Nick brought a £20 note & Drew had emptied his children's money boxes of as much small change as possible.Counting the money made John miss the warm-up & he is still calculating who owes what money to whom.
Having the backing of the club on Friday evening gave John the confidence to win the toss & put the oppostion into bat. Following the Great Totham tradition of having relatives opening bowing or batting or both, Joshua opened the bowling with a devastating spell of 2 overs. His first wicket was caught by Drew & his second was stumped by Nick. Drew has reinvented himself as a bowler & bowled a tight 2 overs for 7 runs, during which Cheesey swooped to throw in to Nick who demolished the stumps. Everyone's favourite umpire, Diggers, took an age to raise his finger, but Boreham were 3 wickets down with not many on the board. Pooky & Cheesey then came on to bowl & runs off the bat continued to be hard to find. Pooky bowled with less control than usual, even bowling some wides & no balls. But Cheesey was his usual, unplayable self, 2 overs for 3 runs. Cheesey, caught the shoulder of the bat for Drew to take his second catch. Nick showed he was awake by chasing a ball & running out another batsman. Overs were moving along, so John came on to bowl, with only one wicket remaining. After one ball it was all over. The batsman was fooled by the slowest ball of the game (although it was John's quicker one!) & Nick completed another stumping. All out for 51.
The batting order was rearranged as we were chasing a low total. John showed faith in Cheesey, following last game's miscommunication, by opening the innings together. The score ticked along nicely until Cheesey hit one skyward & was caught & bowled off the ceiling. Nick came in & the score rattled along. As proof that John is now fit enough to play, Nick forced him to run a two on two occasions in the same over. The rest of the team removed their pads as Nick hit a six to move within a few runs of victory. Then he got out! Cue much trying to get pads back on, Pooky came in & the game was over in the 6th over.
A convincing victory by Great Totham. Next game is in a fortnight v St.John's Billericay
