The Northern Gateway side returned after a prolonged break from Christmas against a strong Coggeshall side. Pook and Henge were contributing a double gameweek, while Pidge, Yeatesy, JH and Slats behind the stumps made up the side.
Pook won the toss and we were bowling, and to be honest not loads to report to begin for us. The Coggeshall pair hit the ball well, pressured us in the field, despite a tidy first over from Henge, a couple of fielding errors led to the score being 56 without loss from 5, everyone having contributed an over. The one thing of note was Pooks dropped catch from his own bowling, otherwise chances were few, but as both openers retired, we hoped for more luck. This quickly vanished, another decent over for Henge but then Sam was targeted, 6s hit and Coggeshall flying. JH and Pook slowed things a tad, but an expensive Pidge in the middle left us an uphill battle as 2 more Coggeshall players retired. Henge and JH took responsibility for the last two overs, knowing the opposition had full license to go at everything. We did grab a run out, Henge with the effort, but with a couple of wides, and JFH tripping over his own feet while bowling one ball, that was the best we could manage and Coggeshall getting to 143-1, a target we knew was tough but chaseable.
Henge carried on as skippers favourite, opening the batting with his mate Pidge, last time we had seen this combination an awful run out occured so we weren't holding out much hope. The opener didn't offer us much in his first over, but a couple of good bits of running in the second got our board ticking. A Egg returned to then bowl a series of wides, getting angrier and angrier as he went, and nearly threatening to put his head through the sports hall wall at one point, a strange site on a Sunday indoor game. JFH had seen enough of Pidges opening gambit, taking the first opportunity to trigger him and we were one down. Pook very nearly followed but got his bat down last minute on a Yorker, and set about the total. Henge hit consecutive sixes, one a mistimed pull that barely made it, the other a double wall, double run effort. When he retired, Slats joined Pook and the good work continued, Slats on particular hitting some good shots. However, a leading edge from Pook brought his demise, and slowed our run chase despite best efforts. Slats and Sam battled on, but when Slats earned his retirement, we needed 25 from 9 and JFH was not the man for the situation. Despite swinging hard, neither bat made true connections and we fell short by 11. A gutsy effort against a side who, if it was their regular group, I'm certain wouldn't be beaten.
