With Nick building sandcastles at the seaside, the 5 remaining players took on the youth of Hutton. John was back in whites for the first time in a while & won the toss, electing to bowl first. Pooky set up his GoPro behind the bowler's arm to capture his best moments & the game got under way. Hutton were not just youngsters who were quick between the wickets. They proved to be good cricketers who batted very well in building a formidable total. A superb bit of fielding by Pooky ran out the opener & was (probably) caught on camera. He then took a catch off James. After a dodgy first over John found his length & Joshua (standing in for Nick behind the stumps) played his part in removing the bails when the batsman was out of his crease. Pooky then did some more good fielding, taking a throw & ran out the batsman by smashing the ball, in his hand, into the stumps. Possibly on camera again, but this time Pooky managed to break his finger. Or was it a slight chip to the bone?
Cheesey came on to bowl & was his usual unplayable self. The Hutton batsmen struggled to actually hit the ball at all. Cheesey removed one batsman who was deceived by the amount of movement off the non-existant seam. Yet again, a superb performance of top quality bowling.
Hutton, however, did achieve an excellent 133-5 by scoring well off the other 3 bowlers!
John & Cheesey opened the batting. Cheesey was bowled soon after & John was playing more like a 5 day test than a 12 over bash. Impossible to take quick singles due to his age, recent medical matters & the youthful speed of opposition fielders the skipper turned down many possible runs, but managed to play himself in with a bottom edged 6, followed by 5 edges past the keeper. Pooky had to retire after scoring a couple more than John in a similar time.
James & the injured Joshua saw the innings out, to a total of 75.
Next week is the final game v Writtle. The result will be for pride as defeat v Hutton signalled relegation after 5 seasons in the top division.
