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Saturday arrived with sunshine and a strong breeze and the troops set off for Salfords on the next leg of the 'return to division 2' saga. On arrival the opposition were looking a little perplexed with themselves and an inspection of the wicket told why! It looked a little under prepared! Even the oppo used the same words during and after the game!
Anyway the skipper tossed up and lost, we were to bat first. Rob T and Robin went out and fended off a couple of deliveries that took off and aimed for the chest. Robin decided the shorter boundary should be attacked and hit an enormous 6 in the 2nd over of the game. Unfortunately the irregular bounce did for him and he spooned one to deep midwicket for a quick fire 13. Rob T was still taking a few for the team around the chest area when the Chairman arrived at the crease. After a couple of 4's I defended 2 off my neck only to be bowled by the next ball that kept a tad low (it almost rolled, honest!) for 23. Guesty tried to clear mid on when on 5 but failed and trudged off looking miffed. Dazza then joined Rob T and after being dropped, an absolute dolly by the way, decided attack was the better form of defence. He bludgeoned 64 in quick time to help make the total look a lot more respectable before being stumped charging down the wicket as if he were after a pizza or something akin. Rob T finally succumbed for a patient 27, the backbone of the innings.
Dave Lines then murdered two huge 6's before getting out to let Andy Morgan and Matt Jordan increase the wind velocity with large mooings. Saying that, Adam Russell then cracked 14 runs in just about 2 overs to complete Salford's frustration. 204 -7 declared off 45 overs.
Lovely teas, especially the home made cakes.
So out we went to bowl, this week with the Chairman as wicket keeper / back stop! Captain Cheesy opened with Dazza and luckily the pitch hadn't changed during the tea interval.
Dazza knocked the opener on the head with one only just short of a length which was followed by some controversy as it looked as though' the glove had played a part and the ball had been caught. Anyway, toys back in pram and off we went again. Dazza had both batters groping on a regular basis but neither good enough for a tickle. The Captain rang the changes and Matt Jordan decided that the rank long hop was the solution and the batman whacked it straight at Lines jnr for the first wicket. Dazza was replaced by Morgs from the top end and also bowled well without luck. Saying that he did get a few batters to hit the ball in the air only for Guesty and Lines snr to juggle and spill, the captain was restless. More changes to the bowling attack, Robin's pace and Adam's guile. Again the bowling from the top end was proving fruitless but luckily Robin decided he'd have to bowl the batters as we'd forgotten how to catch. 70-1 and our chance of a victory looked slim, defeat was never on the cards. Robin bowled 2 batman with consecutive balls and with the wicket still proving a mine field the new batsmen were hesitant to say the least. The Captain returned from the top end to finally get a wicket proving that it was possible if you bowled NOT for catches. Adam finally caught a cracker off Robin and the wickets were falling at a regular pace. Finally Morgs caught a steepler to give Robin a 6 wicket hall and the team a good win, 3 out of 4 ain't bad.