Well, it's been a while but at last league cricket returns. What a beautiful day it was for it too. These uncertain times have not helped in being able to find cricketers to play; what with virus fears and needing to make a living (not mention injuries) but with the help of some last minute volunteers Elstead enjoyed a great day of cricket.
Elstead went in to bat as Tongham sweated in the field (somewhat weirdly stripping off their tops at every opportunity!-the joy of being all twenty something I guess). Chopper and Pete L let shine wear off the ball as it flew down the leg side ( the insistence on leg side wides by the oppo meaning only 12 overs bowled in the first hour). Chopper the first casualty - not to the ball just to age and infirmity as he retired hurt. Enter Max with what is becoming a customary solid scoring performance ably supported by Simon(14) and Paddy(45) when Pete(16) had had enough. The runs flowed nicely reaching a solid 200 odd before Max(69) holed out. With only a few overs left the others all had fun but scored not so much as we finished on 209, using all but the last three balls available.
Bring your own tea, sped things up a bit but probably the quickest thing that helped the game end on time was depth of the bowling line up!
Once Tongham had got dressed again we went out onto our very dry pitch-please make it rain during the week. Max and Pete L both bowled generally well but were unable to avoid the odd poor ball that Tongham were very strong to pounce on. Confusion in calling gave us our first wicket with a run out from Max, Pat was still able to bamboozle and picked up the second wicket to a catch by Nick. Strong performances from Carrington and Gurong however took the game from us as they set about it with a will, hitting some big shots, despite the efforts of Simon, Giles and Cam.
Congrats to Tongham and well done for playing in good sport.
Big thanks to those who stepped in at the last minute; James, Cam and especially Lockie who stepped into Chopper's shoes as sub fielder and took a great catch, unfortunately ruled out by a no-ball.