Topsy turvey
For the first time in many years, I can report a hard earned victory against our old rivals Byfleet. For many years most of us have endured regular beatings at the hands of the Buzaglio and Hockins brothers, broken up by the odd draw here and there. This time we outflanked them with my decision to bowl first in 85 degree heat proving 'spot on'. I'm certain that we would never have defended a total against their batting line up with the bowling we had available, missing Ashley, Robin and with Edgar not really fit. We restricted them to 226-3 at tea, then backed this up by an excellent batting performance by our top five, to win quite comfortably in the end.
We were very light on bowling, but got off to an ideal start when their opening bat, a centurion the previous week, nicked my first ball to H. Following on from last week, it gave me four in four, and five in six balls. I guess I've had my 15mins of fame now for this season. Soon after, Doug M. pulled off a great diving catch at cover off Matt H. and we then applied the screw very successfully with Jerry W. and Toby C. replacing Matt and myself. In sweltering heat, with a very fast outfield, we controlled the game until the final 45mins when their opener reached his century, supported by their first team captain, a tall Australian, who seriously dented the bowling figures of J.W. and Edgar , who only bowled only 6 overs nursing a shoulder injury. Nick Wright bowled a couple of promising overs of medium pace at the end which could give us an extra option in future. Bowling figs were Matt H. 6-1-36-1, Toby C. 8-1-26-0, Jerry W. 14-1-76-1, Edgar F. 6-0-51-0, Nick W. 2-0-11-0, and myself 9-2-21-1.
In reply we got off to a flyer with Dave F. and Edgar F. racing to a rapid 50 partnership, only ended at 96, shortly after Dave reached his fourth fifty in five innings with some trademark hitting. Edgar soon followed for 36 before Ashley W. made 39 including 2 long straight sixes and Doug Michael, in only his third game of the season struck an entertaining 58 n.o., to become the fifth different player this year to make a half century. Jerry W. steered us to victory with 19 n.o. and we won with 4 overs to spare by seven wickets.
I do feel we are pulling together much more as a team this year, with excellent spirit, and much greater confidence in our batting. We have only scored under 165 on three occasions out of thirteen this season, and currently have six players averaging over 30.