SATURDAY XI v Follands 2nds - 9th June 2018
Follands were the visitors to Reading Room Lane on Saturday and faced a Curdridge side with a couple of season debutants in Matt Cozens and Si Pitter.
On a bat first day Skipper lost the toss and was asked to have a bowl, Del and Matt kicked off and Del soon had the opener trapped in front.
Matt Cozens had then obviously upset the wife as he was taken down by a sniper when chasing in the outfield. He retired to the bar for some refreshment, and Curdridge were reduced to 10 players for the rest of the innings.
For the next hour then Curdridge had a nasty dose of dropsies - as the Follands batsmen were the beneficiaries of a series of spurned chances. There were so many of them the official count was not able to keep up, but it certainly helped the Follands boys as the worse hour of cricket played by Curdridge for a couple of seasons left the score at 130-1 at drinks and we were a long way behind.
Dave and Dim were called upon and drinks had an immediate impact with two batsmen sent back both bowled by Dimmy and Curdridge had a way back into the game.
Tight bowling followed from Dave, Luke and particularly Craig and we finally managed to catch a couple to support the bowlers as the run rate was hauled back to respectability with the Follands guys finishing on 192-8.
Tea was taken in the measles ridden pavilion (something to do with Jon Edwards social event) and then Craig and Jack started up.
A good start as usual before Jack fell and an experimental biff from Matt at 3 didn’t end well before David’s tenure at the crease was also short lived.
Skipper joined Craig in the middle with the score on 50-3 and a long way to go.
Batting through the drizzle the pair took the runs on offer and built up the score before Craig’s hamstring reduced his mobility to lower than normal and he went for a well made 54.
Skipper then was trapped in front for 46 but we now had half a chance with a run a ball needed of the last 8 overs.
Bollard biffed but couldn’t find the fence, Dimmy sacrified his wicket looking for two and Tav then took up the charge.
25 needed off 2 became 17 needed of the last over and despite some whoppers from BK’s finest we fell just 7 runs short.
Another close finish but in all honesty it was a poor performance and it would have been an undeserved win had we sneaked it at the end.
Fielding practice needed all round before we visit Portchester next week.
Man of the Match and champagne moment take a week off but there was a multipack of donuts this week - we could probably have opened a branch of Krispy Kreme’s!