The indoor season finally started, back at Riverside after refurbishment that took a year. The first game of the new season had been delayed due to ice hockey, but, never mind, we were back in the sports hall which was wide enough to allow for some running between the wickets. Nick, Cheesey, Pooky, Drew, Josh & John were selected from the large squad available. John followed Rob's outdoor plan of losing the toss & having the opposition doing what we wanted anyway! The opposition looked mean: a couple of blokes almost as old as John, 3 teenagers (or younger) & one regular fellow. All 5 outfield players had a bowl, but it took a piece of lightening fielding by John to run out the oppostion opener. Pretty soon after John got a wicket, caught by Pooky. Then the surpise package arrived. We all thought that Drew spent the winter months honing his technique with the bat, but, no! Secretly, Drew has been chucking the ball in the air so it drops onto the stumps & it worked. Cheesey finished off the innings by having the young lad, who did well for Tilingham, LBW. All out for 94, shouldn't be too much trouble for the top batting line-up.
But, of course, this is Great Totham we are talking about here. Josh managed to touch a ball, but, sadly, straight to the keeper. Nick gave a dolly catch to join Josh back on the balcony. Not quite panic stations, but we were in trouble. Pooky & Drew batted sensibly, easily scoring runs to get close to the total. Both retired leaving John & Cheesey to wrap it up. However, John thought he was young, fit, healthy & quick. How wrong he was, leaving himself stranded half way down the wicket. So, Pooky came in to finish it off. He hit the winning run, then was run out, but spent a long time checking with the umpires that, technically, the game was over when the total was reached, so he wasn't actually out & was still the best player in his family.
