Wow July 1st the last update haha.
Here is my July:
The half-way point of the Saturday season was between Dedham and the 4th July vs Witham. We started brightly, batting first, our openers putting on 76 before the first wicket went down. The second followed the very next ball, Manish registering yet another first-baller. The 57-year-old Simon fell for just three, bringing me to the crease, once again joining captain Steve. We only put on 23, before he was caught, and I then got out, spooning a catch to point for 11. We finished 245-8 off of 45 overs, a fantastic cameo from Imran hitting 10 4s and a 6 in his 55.
We bowled them out for 140, 5.4 overs short of their allotted overs. I picked up 1-25 off of my 5 overs, and I also took a catch which dismissed their number 9.
Sunday 5th July
Once again I was selected for the Sunday 1sts, but for the life of me I don't know why. Down to bat at 9, and only bowled one over for 11. We won the game by 45 runs, but missed out on maximum points because we only had them 9 down. The last two overs consisted of everyone around the bat waiting for the catch! Took 2 deep catches in consecutive balls, which was pleasing.
I was away in Greece for the weekend of the 11th/12th, so missed them games.
Both games on the 18/19th were abandoned or cancelled, so that was a waster of a weekend.
In this time I went to a couple of nets to at least try and get my eye back for the ball. It failed, and I was out many, many times.
July 25th
We made the long, boring trip to Haverhill to play the top of the league side, and the consensus amongst the 'core' of the team was that we should bowl first, given we have a team of youngsters, we only really bat down to 7, and we were missing our captain. We won the toss, but the captain had a pang of 'inspiration' and batted first. Wickets fell at 1-31, 2-42, 3-82, 4-128, 5-133, 6-133, 7-142, 8-151, 9-153, 10-171. Their WK told us that we were "50 short at least". Imagine his surprise, then, that the scorecard read: Kesgrave CC win by 2 runs. We had bowled them out for 169!!
Sunday 26th July
Suffolk Cup Semi-Final against Wortham, the team who have won the competition 3 times in 3 years, but we had a very strong team out. I went in at number 8 with the captain saying "get as many as you can, doesn't matter if you get out." I had 10 balls to get as many as we could. Ideally, 200 was the target to get, but we could only muster 194, even with Dom missing 4 consecutive deliveries. In the final over we were running singles to the keeper, and I have the scar to show where I slid over a stone. Bad times.
Their innings was extremely boring from my point of view, the ball came to me once. But, we won quite comfortably and are through to the Final!!! Which is this Sunday.
August 1st
Eight Ash Green came to town, those of you who actually read this will know that I hit 82 against these guys in my first game of the season. I was bumped up to number 4 for this game, and once again came to the crease to join Steve. To add to our 117 partnership against EAG earlier, and 99 against Stowmarket, we put on 64 to rescue the innings. I was caught behind on 44, and the score was 130-5. We finished the innings on 180-6, and I was fully expecting a win. Which we delivered. They finished 145-9 off of 45 overs. I finished 1-28 off of 6, pretty good for me, and we kept up our charge on 2nd place, and the other promotion spot.
Sunday 2nd August
I don't want to dwell on this game, I got a 4-ball duck.
It is worth saying though, that earlier in the season we put on 450-2 batting first off of 45 overs, and this season we put them in, and bowled them out for 72. We had a good season against them.
Last Saturday, we made the trip to Kelvedon, to play on a pretty good pitch. We bowled first, restricting them to 175-8, I took 2 catches, one skied, and the other drilled low, so that was a positive for me. Another positive is that I hit 33, but the negative is that I nearly lost the game by running myself out. As it happens, we won by 2 wickets.
Sunday we played at Stradbroke, I went in at 9, and won/saved the game for the team. We were 106-7 off of 22 overs, about halfway through the innings, and when I was caught at point, I had eaten 20-odd overs, and made 42, including a 6 over mid-wicket on one knee. I also apparently took a catch as we won by 27 runs.
