The selectors showed no hint of sentiment as Jamie was ruthlessly discarded for Drew, after bravely playing last week with a severe injury. Drew was so keen he turned up at 6pm for an 8pm start.
John lost the toss, but Writtle chose to bat, which was our preference, so we were happy. However, we soon realised that they chose to bat because they only had 3 players by the start of the game! Joe & Pooky opened the bowling & all was well, not many runs off the bat. Joshua & John came on to get through their overs as quickly & economically as possible. Joshua bowled an excellent (?) few deliveries, deceiving the batsmen with full tosses & half-trackers. The full toss proved the undoing of the batsman as he hit the ball straight to Pooky.
Next ball Drew showed his worth with a smart piece of fielding to run out the Writtle player. John then decided that we were doing too well & the game needed a bit more excitement. Wides, No balls, sixes & more rubbish was the order of the first over. The Writtle batsman retired, then John snapped up a c&b to show he can do the odd good thing still. Joshua bowled some more & another run out, courtesy of Joe put Writtle further in trouble. The retired batsman returned & John combined with Nick for a catch behind. From the officials’ enclosure Diggers was heard to exclaim “What a spinner” & then asked for a lift home to Maldon.
Joe & Pooky returned to bowl out, but all overs weren’t needed as Joe took a c&b to leave Writtle on 98 all out. unbelievably, John was the top wicket taker (!) & Pooky & Joe didn’t even bowl all their overs.
Nick & Drew opened & made good progress, reaching 40 without too much trouble. Drew hit the ball straight to the Writtle skipper who dropped a sitter, only to take a one-handed screamer 2 balls later & Drew was gone. Joe kept the score moving along & Nick retired. Pooky kept the momentum going for a couple of balls until he edged one off his hips to the keeper. Joshua joined Joe, who was secretly grumpy over the fact that Joshua had 3 overs & Joe only had 2. Joshua tried to finish the game quickly, but failed to find the boundary. Joe then gently tapped the ball to a fielder & shouted “run”, which Joshua did, but was out by at least 5m. Joe felt guilty for a millisecond. Joe retired & Nick returned.
6 runs were needed for victory & John finished it with one shot, as he predicted before the ball was bowled.
Another great victory, which, hopefully, will not stave off relegation, as Division 1 sounds a bit more like our standard. But, despite our lowly league position & not many victories, Joe is 2nd in the batting statistics, Joshua is 7th. Joe is 4th in the bowling statistics, John is 10th. Joe is 4th in the fielding statistics & Nick is 8th.
A few weeks’ break, then a cup quarter final, before the final league game of the season against the mighty Wickford.
