This week the first team found themselves looking to pick up maximum points at Colden Common in their push for promotion.
In what will likely become a future case study for Statisticians and Maths teachers, at the 10th time of asking Alex finally won his first toss of the season and put Coldham Common into bat. Hopefully this will give him the self-belief to call more confidently throughout the remaining season, with the law of averages surely now to swing firmly in his favour.
Early Wickets
So, onto the game. It was going to be a long afternoon in the field on a sweltering day. Not that anyone told Scotty, who dutifully umpired in his short sleeve cable knit sweater throughout the first innings. Neil got the ball rolling with a wicket in the first over. Dave followed up with a controversial caught behind in his second over (with the opener calling their own umpire “effing blind” on route back to the pavilion).
It felt Colden were on the back foot thereon, and despite a couple of half decent knocks mid-order, the truth is they didn’t have a match for our bowling and never looked like posting an imposing score (even accounting for the 29 wides and 2 no-balls we gave them). Extras aside, everyone bowled well, with the wickets being shared around two each for Neil, Dave, Stefan, DJ, and Alex. Colden ended on 163 and with the first five dismissals all taken as catches, the Oaks were left wondering what the score would have been if the other seven catches had been taken.
Corduroy Conundrum
Council wickets can always serve up a mixed bag, and with badly scarified ridges in this one making it look like a corduroy jacket favoured by a 1980s Geography teacher, no one really knew how difficult a target that would turn out to be. DJ and Will started well against some variable bounce and put down a solid 40 in the first 8 overs until DJ missed a straight one. Nigel was out cheaply, but Will had a wedding to get to and batted as such, together with Woody putting on a sublime batting performance amounting to 111 in 17 overs to close out the game.
Woody finishing unbeaten 42 and Will on a commanding 85 not out…. only a lack of a bigger target denying them the milestones they deserved on what was turning out to be a Super Saturday across the club.
Back to Base on Super Saturday
With the team buoyed by a commanding performance, and with news coming in of some outstanding performances by the second and third teams, there was nothing left to do but head back to base for a few celebratory beers and listen to Dave jabbering on about how he had never been out for the ones (again).
Some things never change, at least until someone gets him (soon please).