Nonetheless they both stuck at it and despite Andrew skying a few (luckily the fielders were not particularly interested in dashing around for possible catches) the pair made 61 runs together before Flourishless made another wild yahoo and played on.
During this gargantuan effort there were rumbles of discontent as the waiting batsmen became impatient to have a go. “Can we retire the batsmen?” was one plaintive cry. And after Andrew was dismissed the team decided to retire poor Sledger. But why? What had he done wrong? Were the seconds in imminent danger of scoring too many runs? (No. An impossibility! Ed)
But as always in these cases fate comes and bites you when you’re least expecting it! George Cuthbert slashed and smote his way to a creditable 26 not out and was the pillar upon which the others built their stuttering innings.
Three wickets tumbled for 7 runs and it could have been a disaster. What the team had failed to appreciated was that during a match a retired batsmen can’t come back in - unlike in practice sessions! Thus things looked somewhat precarious as Leo Seymour and JAM (Jamie MacDonald) went for Golden Ducks. Both of them fooled by slow deliveries that they thought should be dispatched onto the motorway. They should have been, but contact has to be made first!
Example of 2nd XI yahoo, swipe, miss and out!
Will Prenter sadly succumbed to playing around the ball and was out LBW for 2. This brought Tom A-W to the crease. And his innings was a revelation. Gone the timid, retiring (well not going back to the pavilion sort of retiring) batsman of last season. Here was a completely changed persona. Aggressive, quick between the wickets and willing to tough it out (The bowling was pretty ordinary, so don’t give him too much of a big head! Ed) TAW smashed his way to 31 before a bit of a muddle arose between him and George that resulted in his being run out.
New member Tom Wright replaced TAW and seemed reasonably comfortable in his 2nd XI berth - scored a creditable 1 run before the 20 overs were over. Time for tea and some serious decision making about the bowlers.
It’s not often that 132 runs are scored by the Super Seconds without using all their batsmen, so Captain Eric decided that everyone would have a bowl, regardless of accuracy or lack of practice.
Everyone in the team, bar Charlie Riley (the keeper, who would have looked a bit silly trying to bowl with pads and gloves on) and JAM, bowled an over. Varying degrees of success were met but most bowlers managed to keep the ball on line. The dreaded W. Ides only scored 5 and N. O. Balls a paltry 3. Wow - this accuracy is rather frightening!
There were 5 catches, a run out - Tom Wright fumbling the ball in a deliberate attempt to fool the batsmen and then hurling it in unerringly - a LBW and three bowled.. All this for only 28 runs from 14 overs. The team couldn’t quite believe it. Some great bowling and keen fielding were the cornerstone of the victory.
Well done all of you. Another 9 to go but I have a feeling they won’t necessarily be as easy as this one! Piccies on next page but website has more!
