The 1st XI welcomed Rettendon to Bull Meadow fresh off the back of two victories. Rettendon sit 4th in the table & were likely to be a tougher challenge. Rob Hewer returned to lead the side, now able to look both left and right before crossing the road to the Bull, with Cailean Kinsella unavailable. Joe Davis returned from university in place of Jonny Hewer, and George Baron was in for Taidgh Kinsella, who returned to the 1s after taking his turn in the 3rd XI.
Overnight rain probably convinced Rettendon to bowl first when they won the toss, but we were on a used wicket and so felt like we would probably have the best batting conditions of the game. It was the Groom & Best Man to open up again, and both were relatively subdued by accurate bowling. Liam couldn't make it 3 fifties in 3 skying one to cover in the 11th over, and Tommy fell early again. Cooper continued in partnership with me, promoted to 4 after being dropped to the 2s on Monday. We put on 52 before Cooper fell to a terrific catch on the long-on boundary, some unnecessary chat from the Rettendon bowler followed, which was both poor from both a spirit of cricket and actual chat perspective. What probably the second-best innings (Chadders v Writtle being #1) I've had the pleasure of being at the other end for. Joe Davis looked imperious from ball 1, and judging by the strike rates was clearly batting on a different surface to everyone else. There was a small incident when he was on about 20, when the ball flicked something on the way through to the keeper. Rettendon was convinced it was bat and pad, I wasn't sure what it hit, Joe wasn't sure what it hit, the umpire wasn't sure what it hit. Not Out, but I've seen them given! I'd certainly much rather an umpire say not out to one that was out, than give someone out when they weren't. After I'd finally remembered which end of a bat to hold and got my 50, we collapsed a little with Josh & Sam both getting ducks. Joe continued with the skipper & then Dan Allen as we passed maximum batting bonus points for the first time this year & posted 245. The star of the show was clearly Mr Davis with a blistering 90 from 71 balls. A terrific score which we knew would be difficult to chase.
When it came our turn to bowl, Rettendon must have felt the pressure of needing to go at 5.5 an over, playing some incredibly aggressive shots. We took advantage however as Sam Bowen had all of their top 4 caught on the boundary which if that was our top four (and has been on several occasions this season) would have been described by Cheesy as braindead cricket. It should have been 5 for Sam, but I won't dwell on your drop for too long Dan! From 29/4 Rettendon began to build a partnership, there was plenty of chirp around Bull Meadow, from both ourselves and the Rettendon batsmen who were clearly still disappointed in the earlier decision. It all came to a head when Rob brought Joe onto bowl & plenty of more feisty words were uttered. Joe had the last laugh however deceiving the Rettendon batsmen with a slower ball to have him well caught at long-on by a tumbling Melman, and then made himself look a bit silly by giving him a send off. Just no need for it really. In truth, the game fizzled out from there as Rettendon lost their last 6 wickets for 50 runs. Rob Hewer burgled the last two wickets to leave himself on a hattrick next week, and at the same time deny Big-Time the chance for his first five-fer of 2021.
A great win against a very good Rettendon outfit, although disappointingly we don't move up in the table. There are two clear wins between us and the relegation zone now, which is a nice bit of breathing space to have. Hopefully, we can pick up our fourth win in a row against Old Chelmsfordians next week and the aim now has to be to finish in the top 5.
Star Man: Joe Davis
