Recap

The new season began on a beautiful sunny day for a change, and a feeling of optimism, buoyed by a few pre-season drinks, pervaded. A side of mostly seasoned veterans was on display, with 7 of the team exceeding 50, which ultimately was to prove our undoing.

After a lengthy discussion between skipper Charlie E and the Chairman as to what they should do, the toss was inevitably lost and Wickham decided to bat, a ploy cunningly designed to wear us oldies out.

Considering no nets had been done prior to the start, a fine opening spell of bowling from the 2 Charlies (Erith & Alexander) kept things well under control. However, the score was accumulating, and an opening stand of 58 was finally brought to an end by the Chairman, bamboozling the opener with his skill and guile (he missed a straight one). Wickets then began to fall, first with a run out, and then the ever-reliable Stu Peters weighed in with his first of the season.

Ed Alexander then bowled a tidy spell and was unlucky not to get a wicket, whilst Giles Godbold was unfortunate to find a batsman in fine form, hitting some sweet sixes back over Giles’ head. Paul Goodman was then called upon, who proceeded to take his first wicket ever, all the more remarkable as it was caught by Rupert Tozer, the only catch of the day, whilst 6 other catches (at least) were put down. Tom Wasteney also bowled his maiden over for Bures, which was tidy enough, but we expect more successes from him as he gets into the swing of things.

The end of the innings came about with a succession of wickets, largely given away to wild swings at mostly straight bowling. Wickham ended with a formidable total of 211, and it would take some solid batting to achieve a victory for the mighty Bures.

Unfortunately, we did not get off to the greatest of starts with both openers falling for very little, and it was left to the Chairman and Stu to rebuild. Being early in the season, this was, overall, a fairly scratchy affair (not for the purist) interspersed with the odd lusty blow. A stand of 66 was duly delivered and at drinks things still looked do-able. However, the double blow of both established batsmen being out in the next 2 overs (Chairman 53 and Stu 23), it was left to Mark Brewer and Giles to take us closer to our target. Once Mark was out for a fine 25 (possibly his top score to date) skipper Charlie strode to the crease and scored a rapid 39, only to be run out with a direct hit from deep mid-wicket.

Sadly, we had fallen too far behind the run rate, and once Paul was out first ball, even Giles, with a classy unbeaten 31, could not bridge the gap, and we fell a tantalising 23 runs short, which were mostly given away by our poor fielding (due to age and not being able to bend low enough).

So, to the Horseshoes to lick our wounds and prepare for yet greater challenges ahead.