Off to Harwich & Dovercourt (windy but sunny) on Saturday 9th June, with as strong a batting line-up as we will likely muster all season. Cap’n Jack won the toss and Daryl pickled up the 1st wicket early on. H&D then provided some solid technical batting – big thanks to their other opener for walking after being caught behind off Russ’ bowling – but fortunately were nearly all prone to making some rash cross-bat hoiks. Only one of their team reaching 50, whilst Daryl picked up 4 wickets and good to see Harry P back in the wickets.
After a sumptuous tea (which they were urging us to take home with us, so much was left) Torquil & Daryl set about chasing down 178. Always good to see the opposition chirpiness in the field decline as the batsmen pick off the bad balls and this was no exception as the two reached 70 with effortless ease. Daryl went on to make a 50, ably supported by Chintesh in his swashbuckling style including a lost-ball six. However, once both these two were out to good catches, the inevitable happened and no-one else was able to pick up the runs required. Cue the batting collapse and we limped up to 150 all out
Cricket is sometimes a statistician’s dream sport, and our batting numbers would provide some interesting content. From our five completed matches so far this year, we’ve depended on batsmen 1-4 to score 95% of our runs; it’s asking too much, and satisfying though it is that we’ve been able to bowl the opposition out several times, we know where the challenge lies !
Kelvedon at home next week !