1st Team vs Sarisbury Athletic CC, 2nd XI

A return to the Home of Cricket this Saturday to take on fellow-promoted Sarisbury - safe to say Wellies were not required this week. The day started well as Regs was greeted at the changing room door with a print-out screenshot of a rather questionable TikTok repost - a random forfeit was to come for the young man. 

Stand-in skipper Lex had one job at the toss… unfortunately he failed (or so we thought) at the first hurdle as we had to stick the whites on and head out to field (rumours are that Henry used up a whole bottle of factor 50 before heading out to bowl). 

A wicket with his first ball (and a Jaffa at that!) saw Fred reduce Sarisbury to 0-1. However, Sarisbury’s top-order began to rebuild and climbed to 49-1 at drinks - a top effort from everyone in the field (the less said about Deano’s drop, and the bleeding that followed, the better). A break from the sun clearly helped our bowlers as the post-drinks onslaught began straight away - Henry taking 2 wickets in 3 balls in the first over after the stoppage. Pressure continued to build on the opposition batters and this continued when Daryl came on to bowl, and to everyone’s disbelief saw an early one turn. Tight death bowling from Stormy Norman and Fred clamped down on any Sarisbury hope of a tail-end rebuild. And after being dragged off on a 4fer, Daz was seen begging to come back on, getting his wish in the 43rd over. The change-up worked, getting the final wicket with his 5th ball back - all credit to the skipper for his timing of chucking DB the ball. Max fines were headed the umpires way as he managed to pocket-dial someone during DB’s first spell - a loud “hello?” Was heard during his run-up.

After what can only be described as another wonderful tea from Kelly (early signs are that it’s the best in the league), Reg’s and Stevo headed out to open. A tricky start saw Regs go early. Munnings came out at 3 and looked to be patient, even surprising himself when he left a ball (before turning to Stevo and saying “wow that felt weird”). He soon got himself in and motored to a powerful 42 from just 34 balls, including taking one bowler for 32 off his 2 overs. This soon quietened the Sarisbury chirping, as we reached 80-1 before losing Munno. Stevo, Lex and Deano saw the game home inside 20 overs. There were question marks over why Stevo didn’t try to get his 50 with a 6, but this was soon squashed as he revealed he wanted the Fantasy Cricket ‘not out’ points. A comfortable 21pt victory on a Dolmans Road. 

Some would say a good toss to lose… sat drinking the much-loved Juicy Apples at 6pm watching the 3s get over the line - Smashley (AC) Collison with a match winning 14 red.