Looking to rebound back from last weeks poor performance, the 3s were invited to a party round Yeatesy’s. After weeks of rain, Braxted was looking green, a long outfield and a mystery deck awaiting the two sides.
With the 3s being put into bat on what looked like a bowl first kind of day, there was a lot of work to do. Macauley Pook and John Dundas both strode out to the middle, greeted by the 10 man Eastwood side. John playing his first game since 2004, and Pook rocking up as he heard rumours of a curry and coconut rice being on offer.
A misbehaving pitch and a long outfield made runs hard to come by, with 21 runs coming off the first 10 overs. John departed for 6 following a questionable decision, upset that the new bat didn’t get more of an outing. Next in was the Braxted bully, who with Pook looked set to put on a decent partnership. With Yeatesy falling for a valuable 21, it was time for RK to continue his trend of offering absolutely nothing with the bat. The 3s needed someone to hang about with Pook, luckily, Tickle was up to the task. From a position where a 3s collapse has happened far too often, another 40 runs was added to the score, a promising partnership ruined by Pook. With the score sat at 135-4, an extra 20/30 runs was needed to set a defendable total. Some interesting calls from Archy ensured that the 3s got there, setting Eastwood 163 to win.
The tea break saw Pooky go from hero to villain, he was that guy who turned up to bat and then left. For teas Yeatesy had put on a hog roast for the big home game, but refused to share and piled it all into a sandwich.
With teas over Totham entered the field, ready to defend their total. Jess and Max opened with the ball, both bowling well with no reward, while Max had even decided to re-write the rule book and bowl off 24 yards, not sure this one will catch on. Eastwood found themselves 37-0 off the first 10, which meant the game was perfectly set up for a Tommy Wheeler and Yeatesy masterclass, which is exactly what we got. With Tommy bowling one opener, and Yeatesy out playing the other, who fell after a sharp stumping by ‘Timbo Slice’ (He’s really trying to force this nickname). Tommy then went on to pick up two more wickets, with only the captain scoring any runs throughout Tommy and Sam’s spell. The Eastwood captain later found himself running a quick single only to have Max Clarke run him out. A poor mix up by the two batsmen saw the bat get thrown further than the ball went. Surely that was the game?
The required outcome for the win was simple, Eastwood needed 76 runs from the last 12 overs, with 4 wickets in hand. Would turning up with 10 come back to haunt the away side? Only time would tell. Needing to find 12 overs, Yeatesy turned to the Ryan Combo, with Golden arm Archibald and RK taking the ball. Both took a wicket, and the run rate far below the 6.5 required at the start of their spells, the Eastwood bats knew they were beaten. Both agreeing to block out and play no stupid shots to make sure their own opening bowler wouldn’t get a chance.
The 3s winning by 31 runs, a great performance all round.
Player of the Match: Tom Wheeler
Bunnest Performance: James Pook (No one likes the guy who has a bat and then leaves)
