Well, I dont think we could have asked for a better start to the season! We had fantastic weather for our first outing of the season (which makes a change for our early season visit to Woodmansterne) and having won the toss it did not take long for me to decide to bat - sun beating down and what looked a good pitch to bat on. It was tough going early on a both Windy and Ming got used to holding a bat again - 20 mins pratice in the Woodmansterne nets before hand did not seem to do them any harm! Once they got into their stride there was not stopping them. I thought both might go on to get tons and in the process break the club record for the opening stand, but Ming was out when he was looking to push the score on a bit. Poor old hippo, sat they for 29 overs getting pad rash - and this after making the predicition of the season (that he will break Ming's record of most runs in a season). Of course one of Ming's records went when Windy went onto make an unbeaten 137 beating Ming's 124 vs. Blagdon Hill - just goes to show that if you have the skill you dont need much practice. Ming also batted superbly for his 82. There was no taking away a superb innings by Windy though and it was great to watch.

 

But it was not all about batting - the bowlers played their part as well and Julc and M'Nig showed the 'old pros' they are by dropping straight on the length and getting the tight start we wanted. M'nig had only arrived at tea, so he was changing whilst the rest of us were walking out to field, only to then find he was opening the bowling - nothing like preparation time!! LOL. Likewise Casper and Melli showed that just a few throw downs in the net was enough to get back into the swing of it and Casper left off where he finished last season and got straight back into the wickets. It was so funny when he was going on about splintering the stump that we found out it was a colts set of stumps out there and one good hit was going to wreck them! But he proved the radar was in tune by going on and continuing to lay back the leg stump of the oppo. The only sour point was our lack of a fifth bowler (where was Joel when we needed him...oh yeah, playing for Kempton!) Foggy's injured shoulder meant that he could only get one over before the pain barrier was too much. Poor old Hippo and Windy, they took on the remaining 7 overs and were tonked for 70 in the process - shame the oppo decided to wait until then to try and make a game of it. But then having posted a stonking 293 they were always going to be up against it and to be honest with 16 overs left the game was in the bag - we had all started to lose the edge and were thinking about the bar and beer by the time Hippo and Windy were taking tap. With us only having 10 - and many of those unable to throw the ball it was great to have young Olli Perry trotting back and forth between fine leg and fine leg - for one so young he did a great job and he must have been knackered by the time he got to bed! Once again the shallowness of the squad of players does leave us exposed a little - next week we have not Windy, Ming and myself with a few others to confirm also, lets hope we can follow on this fantastic win at Woodmansterne by fulfilling the fixture at Seven Sports

 

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