Preview

This match was played under the very dark cloud of the sudden death of one of our most treasured members, Chris Ayers. Gestingthorpe were extremely respectful and understanding, but in truth I’m not sure any of us were quite in the right frame of mind to play. A minute silence was held to remember and honour Chris before the start of the game.

Luke (captain for the day) duly won the toss and decided to bowl, a curious decision for a number of reasons, not least because for all but the last few overs of Gestingthorpe’s innings, we only had 10 men (and most of them were not very mobile). However, we had a decent bowling attack opening up with Adam Kerr and Benji Wheeler. They bowled tidily and economically, but rarely threatened, and the first wicket taken by Adam and caught by Rob W was something of a surprise. Stu P and Mark B replaced the opening pair, and again bowled well, with Mark finally making the second breakthrough with an excellent caught and bowled. How much he actually knew about it is something of an enigma, but the ball stuck in his armpit and amazingly stayed there! The Chairman and Mr Slow, making his one appearance of the year, were then called upon, again both taking a wicket, one caught in the deep and the other off a full toss, hit off the back of the bat somehow arriving in Paul H’s gloves. I should mention that Paul’s debut as wicketkeeper was exemplary and near faultless.

Yet another strange wicket followed, a run out whereby the batsman was not paying enough attention, and this put Bures in a reasonable position. Unfortunately, the next two batsmen came in and struck the ball powerfully, despite Tom W and the Captain himself bowling well. In the end a target of 198 did not look too daunting on what seemed a good wicket.

However, looks can be deceiving, and a combination of a rapid deterioration in the pitch together with some quick and accurate bowling soon had us on the back foot. Suffice to say, only 2 people made double figures, and whilst Stu P (23) made a valiant stand, no one could stay with him and, by the time he was caught out in the deep, we were 57 for 9 and there was no hope of any further recovery, despite Colin B making an admirable 12.

So, a sound thrashing with once again Bures failing to reach 100. A sad day all round, and fair to say, despite some bravado in the Shoes, we look forward to happier days next season.