Tight Finish at Greys Green

Wickets fell regularly as as Greys Green made hard work of scoring on a difficult pitch that showed sideways movement and irregular bounce.  A wicket in the first over, then the third (which also included Andy Heard hitting the stumps off a rare front-foot no-ball) and then there's the catching!  Francis snaffled that rarest of things, an actual catch at first slip; whilst Paul Vaughan took three standing at extra and short extra.  Killer added a fifth for the team.

Jon Steward didn't get a catching chance but performed very well as newly installed keeper.  I think he surprised himself, having originally done the job "only until Floody gets here", but now fancying another keeping opportunity tomorrow.

All the bowlers performed well, including the colts, Matt Kilford and Scooby, who as it happens are due to face each other in a make-or-break U15 game the following day.

Greys Green 138 - 9 dec.

If we congratulated ourselves at tea, this proved to be a mistake.  Told to hold an end up, Heard nicked one hanging his bat out to dry on the third ball.  Things didn't improve, as runs were perilously hard to squeeze out, and we were making around one an over to the regular cries of "timber!" as the last 20 overs came around.  Two were golden ducks (that's both the guys who took the catches, funnily enough), though PV had legitimate cause for complaint as his own umpire (Heard, now adding a third wicket to his earlier haul) was "moving in front of the bowlers arm", still putting on the coat as the bowler came into bowl a fiercely in- swinging delivery that disturbed the furniture.

The best result that seemed likely was a draw, but when Gandhi and new player, Ashad, came to the crease the run-rate dramatically improved, especially Ashad's massive six hitting powers that made him easily our top scorer with 68.  It took a great catch in the deep from the oldest player on the pitch (I guess) to remove him.

Greys Green win by 22 runs.

Andy Heard

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