Not for the first time this season, the bowlers kept us in a game thanks to their batting and came to within 19 runs of what would have been a remarkable (and rare!) victory at Gidea Park & Romford.
There seemed to be a strangely subdued mood during the warm up. Graham won the toss yet again and for the second week running, decided to field. Given that it is double batting points when batting first, it was more important to keep wickets and chase a total rather than see some of the reckless batting produced in recent weeks.
It took the spin of Big Al to take the first wicket in the 24th over with the score on 96. This helped to slow down the run rate, with spin coming from the other end via Uncle Joe. Graham took a smart catch at first slip to remove the other opener. Two overs later, Uncle Joe took his second wicket and his third in his next over. That was as good as it got for the spinners as the over rate shot up to seven an over from some " see bad ball, smack bad ball (and there were a few of them from the same end) before Horse brought some sanity back to the innings by taking a couple of wickets towards the end. A score of 215-6 was about 40 runs too many, but a score that that could be challenged.
Jackpot (4) falling in the first over wasn't in the script, nor was Uzi (16) falling in the sixth to a ball that looked high from where I was (and I was a fair distance away). He showed his dissent walking off (never good), though it was understandable why. 24-2 had us back on the back foot and a partnership of 35 followed between Woody and Graham before Woody (12) was caught by the wicketkeeper. Stone Cold's visit was a brief one (literally) and he was followed in the next over by Graham (28). Another sojourn from Uncle Joe (3) was all too short as he went two overs later. Griller stuck around for six overs but couldn't get any rhythm before he was bowled for five. This brought Horse to the crease, and, with Arnie, looked prepared to dig in, till Arnie got himself caught on the boundary for 20.
The score had reached 101-8 in the 30th over with another 15 overs (minimum) left. Their spinner had a 5-for and six overs left to get us out. However, Horse and Big Al had other ideas, batting patiently and waiting for the bad ball to punish (top order, take note). Their 50 partnership was reached inside nine overs before Horse reached his 50 from 53 balls (9x4's). They batted for 17 overs as six bowlers were used to try and remove them and they closed out the match on 193-8, with Horse unbeaten on a season best 78 (14x4's, 1x6), with Big Al still there on 19 (1x4). Who knows how much closer we cold have got with another couple of overs in hand?
Next Saturday, it's top versus bottom as Epping come to The Shen. Stranger things have happened......................
Our Partners
We will do our best to get back to you as soon as possible.
