1st XI vs Old Brentwoods CC, 1st XI

Yet another disappointing display by the 1's confirmed what had been known for some time, that the 1's will be playing Division 2 cricket next season.

Winning the toss, Graham decided to put the hosts in to bat, hoping to make the most of the early conditions. He seemed justified when the opening bat skied a mistimed shot to midwicket; however, this was inexplicably dropped. This was the first of FOUR dropped catches during the innings, though in general, the fielding was better than it had been for a few weeks. For the first 30 overs, they were restricted to around three an over, and with five wickets down, it looked hopeful that they could be kept to an achievable target. Four of the wickets had fallen to Big Al, with the other going to Uncle Joe, so it looked like pace off could be the way to go; not so as they more than doubled their runs in the next 19 overs, going over 200 in the process. Will "Dobbie" Dunleavy grabbed his first senior wicket in his second game, Arnie grabbed one before injuring his ankle and Horse cleaned up the remainder. A score of 215 was certainly above their expectation.

Losing two batsmen in the opening 10 overs was symptomatic of our performances this season. We were five down for 60 in less than 19 overs with the match only now going one way. Resistance was offered by top scorer Linford (27) and debutant "Rogan" Josh Kirby who faced the most balls before mistiming his shot to be out for 19. The general apathy of the team was summed up after drinks when half of them decided to practice penalties rather than watch their own team perform and encourage the batters.

We limped to 148 all out in the 42nd over which will probably see us finish bottom in a division for a second consecutive season. Whilst they averaged over two boundaries an over, we managed only one every three. Thirteen of the overs we received were maidens (3) or scored only one run , only two batsmen scored more than 20 runs, whilst the team hasn't scored more than 200 runs in an innings for more than a month.

Maybe it's time to give a few youngsters a chance to gain some experience before the start of next season. Next week sees our final home game of the season, against Fives & Heronians. Now that the pressure is off, perhaps a second win of the season????????????????