Recap

Off to Wickham St Paul for our first away match of the season on possibly the hottest day we have played on this year. In recent years we have found victories over Wickham hard to come by but, armed with a number of younger players in the side gave us some good reason for hope on this occasion. Charlie (E), skipper for the day, won the toss and decided that Bures should bat first, to see if we could set a challenging total in a 30 over per side game.

As it turned out the pitch, which is notoriously low, had metamorphosed into a two paced wicket with some still shooting, but others jumping up to almost head height. So, some cautious batting, “playing ourselves in”, was clearly the order of the day. Consequently, the opening pair of the Chairman and James (E) singularly failed to do this and both, having fairly wild swings, were caught extremely well in the covers. Luckily, we had the steadying influence of Stevie T and Stu P to put things back on track, but unfortunately not for long enough. Stevie T also holed out trying to push things along, and when Hugh (S), bowled by a pea roller, Tom W and the Skipper himself were all out in one over, we found ourselves struggling at 49 for 6. Stu manfully kept going for a satisfactory 30, but once he was out, it was a matter of eking out whatever we could in the remaining overs. Josh (N), Max (M) and Benjie Wheeler (on debut) all did their best under trying conditions, but in the end the pressure was too much, and Bures were all out for 89, surely not enough.

The Chairman and James (E) were given a chance to redeem themselves but, despite some tidy overs, they failed to make inroads, so the Skipper and Stu (P) were brought on with immediate effect. First, Stu got one to rear up off a length (though quite what length I’m not sure) and James caught an outstanding catch at slip (possibly one of the best ever seen – according to James). Then Charlie, with a remarkable spell of 6 overs, 6 for 1 (or 1 for 6) and Stu, with a second wicket, made Bures feel they had a chance. Sadly however, despite great efforts from Max, Benjie and Josh, no more wickets were forthcoming, and Wickham won by 7 wickets with 8 overs to spare (another 30 or 40 runs by Bures could have proved quite a challenge however).

So back to the Bells for a pint and to commiserate, with hopes of finishing the season off strongly.