A 1s Totham Road trip again, this time to Rayleigh for a bottom of the table clash, with this in mind it seemed the perfect time for holidays and handball tournaments! Henge, GD, Tommy and Pook all missing from the week before, Cheese, Issey, Tommy W and Taidgh coming in.
Rob did his usual, won the toss and decided to bat, opening with him was brother JFH, tasked with the Henge roll of opening the batting and bowling. The start was steady, JFH deciding to leave most alone on the bouncy pitch, Nob deciding to step back and swing hard, picking up a few boundaries and frustrating the opener. He took his frustration out on JFH, got one to swing back, take the glove and caught behind without scoring. Cheese found himself with a lofty promotion too, in at 3 to accompany Nobby and did so well, mixing the two Hewers playbook with reasonable success, until he bottom edged a pull and was bowled. Nobby soon followed, cutting straight at cover for 25.
All this brought the man in form FGA, and a very fragile and hungover Melman to the crease. To anyone who didn't read the village cup report at the very beginning of the season, some of Joshs' best cricket is played hungover, so when we awoke him from his sunny siesta, and deposited his first scoring shot into the car park, we thought we were in for a treat. Together with FGA, who played some gorgeous shots, they built well, Josh hitting a second 6 over car park into road, and put pressure back onto Rayliegh. Unfortunately, both departed together too early, Josh bowled on 36 and FGA misjudging a pull and caught on 48. With the score on 132-5 but plenty of overs, Mutton and Tim knew they could bat patiently for a while, until Mutton missed a straight one. Issey batted bravely at 8, getting hit several times and a few verbals from the Rayleigh stand in captain to add to the mix. When Tim was dismissed (I missed this grabbing my Gregg's special tea) the end was near. Taidgh looked composed in his efforts till bowled, Issey then caught and Tommy triggered (RK once again somehow not facing!) We had been bowled out for 190, while over treble our previous visit to Rayliegh, we knew it would be a hard defend.
Tea Rating: Rayliegh not supplying so it was a BYOT effort, Gregg's did me well however. 0/10
RK and JFH found themselves as new ball bowlers, RK extracting excellent bounce and JFH good control kept Rayleigh quiet before RK got a breakthrough, getting the opener to leave a straight one and given LBW. He was shortly replaced by Taidgh, who bowled quick but anything loose was dispatched and the scoreboard began moving. JFH had bowled well but wicketless so Cheesey took over, grabbing a wicket with a wonderful delivery to fool the other opener. From here the Rayleigh pair put the pressure on the field (us dropping 2 chances) and dismissing anything g wayward. Issey had a short burst from Taidghs end but with no reward, so Tommy Wheeler took over. The Cheese/Tommy combination got a couple of wickets to give us hope, Tommy spinning once sharply back to remove the Rayleigh skipper, who then tried to bully the umpires and his second teenager of the day by suggesting Tommy was chucking, much to no avail, and Cheesey grabbing his 400th first team wicket, caught sharply by JFH in the covers.
The hope we had from these wickets slowly disappeared, Cheese had his last over taken apart to leave him with slightly harsh figures of 2-54 from 9, and whatever bowler stepped up it didn't quite work, except young Tommy who claimed a second, bowling the Rayleigh Number 3 with his score on 91, ruining his hundred. From here Rayleigh nudged and nurdled their way home to win by 5 wickets, leaving us very bottom of the league with 4 to play.
Mom: A very hard one to give, split between Fgas 48, Tommy's 2 wickets bowling well again, or Cheeseys batting effort and 2 wickets, including his 400th
