Earls Colne go second!

Earls Colne vs. Great Horksley 18^th August

Colne made the trip over to Mile End sports ground to take on Great Horksley, who we had managed to defeat in the reverse fixture a month previously.

Daryl lost the toss and we were asked to bat, on a pitch that had a good deal of grass, but that was quite dry.

Daryl and Harry opened up for us and made decent progress against some very good bowling from Horksley, it seemed quite difficult to get the ball away, or play a shot with confidence, as the bounce was a little erratic. Daryl was dismissed trying to pull when the ball got a little big on him, apart from that after 13 overs we were 42 for 1 and Chintesh and Harry looked rather untroubled.

However, the change bowling continued to test Colne, Harry was bowled by a full toss, Chintesh was caught on the line at Cow Corner, Joss was caught at mid off (how else?). Will Dunn batted bravely with what looked like a half chewed off finger! Halfway through our innings we had fallen to 73 for 5, we thought 150 would be a decent total to set. At 98 for 8, 120 looked a more realistic target. However Angus Wardle at number 6 who had played with great application and number 10 Colin Bocking (who had upset the wife by playing two games this weekend!), showed great resilience in putting on 52 for the 9^th wicket in 13 overs (Angus 31 not out, Colin 17). Ben at Number 11 was caught behind with the Score on exactly 150, we gave Horksley 2 overs, but crucially we had managed to get ourselves to a total that we felt we could defend if we bowled well.

After a tea of egg sarnies, cake and sausage rolls, we set about the task in front of us, knowing that we would have to bowl and field pretty much out of our skins on one of the biggest pitches this season.

Horksley started pretty well and managed to nullify the Colne attack of Smith and Oakley after 17 overs, Horksley openers Jayasooria and Hassan had taken them to 62 for 0,  we needed to take a wicket quickly otherwise the game would be gone.  Cue Chintesh and Ben who bowled with great control, we put the squeeze on Horksley, Harry taking a smart catch off Ben and Chintesh tweaking a few at the bottom end reduced Horksley to 85 for 6, including the key wickets of Krishnan and Fitzgerald. Harry with a smart leg-side stumping and Joe Smith taking a catch at deep cow-corner to get some revenge on the man who had parked him two years ago at Bergholt.

However the game was not over yet Moula and Nanda, both of whom had batted well at Colne earlier in the season, were frustrating us and continuing the theme of most runs being scored through the slip/gully region. Joe managed to return and nip Moula out and a few overs later Nick dismissed Nanda with Joss Wilkinson holding his nerve and taking the catch at point. We finally dismissed Horksley for 128 in the 41^st over. A win by 22 runs.

Bowling Figures : Nick Oakley 10-2-32-1, Joe Smith 10-1-24-1, Chintesh Patel 10-1-28-4, Ben Mason 10-3-23-4, Colin Bocking 1-0-7-0.

Earls Colne 20 points, Great Horksley 7 points.

We now move up to 2^nd, and to a crucial top of the table clash vs North Springfield Wanderers next weekend.