On a glorious day for cricket Totham faced a long journey away to face Witham CC, with eleven players all sorted before the day of the game! Captain Chadwick Jr lost the toss and Totham were put in to bowl.
D. Quatermaine opened up the bowling, starting off brilliantly by finding the outside edge of Witham’s opener in his first over, unfortunately A. Whiting at slip couldn’t hold on to the ball, despite having all the gear, A. Whiting clearly had no idea. O. Cheeseman opened up at the other end, bowling very tightly as usual and was unlucky to not get wicket. J. Ridge was bought on for a couple of overs but struggled to find a rhythm, while G. Davis was on at the other end bowling well. Just before drinks Captain Chadwick bought on his father to bowl, thinking a bit of pace needed to be injected in to the innings, then after drinks Totham got their first wicket with Chadwick Sr bowling out Witham’s opener (to the batsmen’s amazement) with a ball that must have been close to 80mph. Now with a wicket Totham began to improve in the field and with the ball, Chadwick Sr bowling well for nine overs and G. Davis doing the same at the other end, especially when bowling the bouncer that got about as high as the Witham batsmen’s shins which was hit out to A. Whiting who took the catch (still has no idea). Although wickets were now being taken, Witham continued to get runs, finding gaps in the field and punishing the bad balls. J. Ridge and DQ were bought back on towards the end of the innings and bowled much better. DQ getting a well-deserved wicket, a caught behind taken fantastically by Captain Chadwick. Cheeseman finished up well getting two wickets, Witham finishing on 286-6.
With a big total to chase down, A. Whiting opened the batting with C. Kinsella. A fantastic start by the two meant Totham were up with the run rate from the off. A. Whiting showed some of his finest golf strokes to get to a quick 43 before getting out, bringing in Captain Chadwick who got a few before missing a straight one. C. Kinsella who was batting brilliantly to get to 49 decided he didn’t fancy buying a jug so hit one straight to a fielder. Despite an opening partnership of 86, Totham began to crumble. H. Banyard hitting a lovely sweep shot right to the man in the deep, Chadwick Sr being plumb LBW, R. Hewer being caught and Cheeseman bowled. In came R. Archibald, looking good for his 3 runs, then came the turning point in the innings. Archibald went to change his bat for one that wasn’t broken and that had a grip that was mostly on the handle of the bat, now he had his new bat nothing could stop him, except a straight ball which Archibald ever so gently hit back to the bowler. Next wicket was G. Davis, trying to sweep a straight ball that bounced twice it was so short, Davis seem shocked that trying to sweep a pea roller got him bowled. The last wicket fell with Totham only reaching 152, falling well short of the 286 they were chasing.
A tough day for the Sunday XV, but they have next week to look forward to against Abberton CC at home.
