So, to our first away match against our arch rivals Twinstead. Having beaten them quite comfortably
in previous years we arrived feeling confident, but this was a very different looking side which faced
us.

Their opening bowlers were both accurate and aggressive, with Ward getting increasingly angry and
firing more abuse than wicket taking balls at Giles H. Damian, our other opener, who was quietly
building an innings of 1 at the opposite end, soon succumbed to some fine swing bowling, and once
Ralph had swung with venom at a number of balls, he too found himself back on the sidelines. There
followed an impressive partnership between Giles H and Mr Tozer, now dubbed the Bures Gordon
Greenidge. Mr T, injured while walking serenely to the wicket, thereafter employed Ralph to do the
running for him, but then decided that smashing the ball to all corners was a better tactic. This
combined with some gentle goading of Mr. Ward (“This bowler is absolute rubbish” said just loud
enough for all to hear) led to a wonderful spectacle, and a partnership well in excess of 100 ensued.
Once they were out, there were plenty of contributions down the order, with Monty once again
making an impressive 44 n.o., and Captain Carl, Orlando and Shenners all chipping in.

Tea was taken (individually still) with crowd members swelling all the time, and then the team
returned to the pitch to do the hard work. The 240 we had set Twinstead felt a good total, and once
Captain Carl got to work we were soon in the driving seat. In one of his best spells ever witnessed,
he bamboozled the oppo, taking 4 of the top 5 batsmen, 3 cleaned bowled, and he could easily have
had 5 or 6. The spin turns of Erith (O) and Lewis came on, and for a while Twinstead kept up with
the asking rate, but once Lewis had broken through, getting Mr Angry with a cunning half tracker,
the game was up. Monty and Ralph both bowled well and tidily, and the Chairman was again
allowed to clean up the tail.

In the end Twinstead fell well short on 172, and once again we retired to the pub feeling extremely
satisfied with the day’s achievements.