Saturday 29th July 2006

Bowl Movement CC versus Marsh Marigolds CC. I should have kept my mouth shut last week about being lucky, as I lost the toss. The other side elected to bat first, and piled up a massive score which left us at tea feeling a bit downhearted, and even Frangelita’s best muffins didn’t really lift our spirits.
On a fast, dry and very hard outfield the ball was flying to the boundary far too often. Vicus made an early breakthrough, bowling the opener: 24-1.
After that, though, our bowlers tired fast in the muggy conditions, and I switched to spin, Interpreter getting his man caught behind by Richard: 51-2.
Neither we slower bowlers, nor the openers, could dislodge the next pair, and with the score moving ominously higher I experimented with two novice bowlers, Frangelita being rewarded when an edge was caught in slip by Ivy: 154-3.
I brought the slower bowlers back on, and got a wicket myself as Phil held an amazing reflex catch at silly mid on: 179-4.
The return of the openers saw Vicus taking his second wicket, caught behind: 208-5.
Another hard spell of bowling achieved nothing, so I tried Phil for a spell, with me at the other end – they were so eager to face Phil that the batsman misjudged one of my balls, and was clean bowled: 230-6.
The openers soon returned, and Tom got his first wicket when I held onto the ball in gulley: 280-7.
After a long hot spell, Tom took the next wicket, trapping his man LBW: 333-8.
Frangelita held on to a diving catch off Vicus’ bowling: 344-9.
I brought myself on to finish off the tail, bowling him: 360-10.
360 was a massive mountain to climb, and frankly I feel we went at it too hot-headedly.
Vicus was caught behind: 8-1.
Richard was caught and bowled: 21-2.
Tom had been playing very aggressively, and smashing the ball to the boundary, before being caught behind: 53-3.
The next ball saw Interpreter’s wicket fall, caught in the slips: 53-4.
Carol came in, had a swing, edged the ball to slips and departed: 60-5.
I had been trying to hold the innings together, batting cautiously as the wickets tumbled. Eventually I tried to push on towards our target, and was bowled: 74-6.
Phil was out LBW (this is not the first time; perhaps you should try hitting the ball with the bat Phil): 77-7.
Jona too edged the ball to the slips: 85-8.
Mincat was clean bowled: 85-9.
The next ball also uprooted Ivy’s stumps: 85-10.
We lost by 270 runs.