To the surprise of many, including a number of the younger members of the opposition, Saturday’s game started on time. With so much rain forecast, Horton won the toss and elected to bat – controlling the over split of the game. Horton lost Moffat (1) early, but recovered with Parmar (53) and Mowat (33). The score was 83 when the second wicket fell. This triggered a series of regular wickets, just as small partnerships had begun. Only Will Knibbs (27) stuck around for anytime and we were indebted to Arnav Jain (23*) for some late hitting at the end to get us to 200-9 from our 50 overs. Overstone had bowled and fielded exceptionally well.

Horton got off to a terrible start, with Ben Meachem going down with a hamstring strain in the second over. Kalpesh (7-1-27-0) bowled with his usual guile, but it was only really Anvit Arkanath (11-0-39-0) who looked like troubling the openers who had raced along the score to 128-0 from 25. The House were saved by the heavens opening. The opposition captain offered the draw, given the forecast of rain and Horton took home a fortunate share of the points.

2nd XI vs. New Bradwell CC 2nd XI

The 2’s welcomed New Bradwell to Denton Road for our 7th game of the season. With the weather forecast not looking great for later in the day, we won the toss and decided to have a bowl.

We bowled very economically up to drinks with Steve Finch returning the wonderful figures of 10-5-12-0. The New Bradwell openers put on 150 for the 1st wicket, but we always had the scoring rate in check. All the bowlers bowled well and tight and there were wickets for Rory Monk (2) and Elliot Cantrell (3). Our ground fielding on the day was outstanding, which was really pleasing to see. New Bradwell 2’s finished their innings on 181-5 off their 45 overs.

Chasing 182 to win, we opened with Craig and Zed. Unfortunately, Zed fell to a wonderful catch at 1st slip early in our reply. Craig was joined by Harvey Banks who played nicely again hitting some eye catching boundaries before falling for 28 just before the rain came. Craig continued his outstanding form with the bat, hitting some wonderful boundaries in addition to some excellent running between the wicket’s, finishing on 51 not out when the rain came to curtail proceedings.

We finished on 91/2 after 20 overs. We just managed to get the 20 overs in second innings to constitute a game and won the game on the Duck-Worth Lewis Method. Big thank you to our scorer Chris Meachem from both skippers on the day for calculating the DLS scoring system for us. We travel to Yelvertoft 1st XI this coming Saturday looking to continue our winning momentum.

3rd XI vs. Towcestrians CC 2nd XI

On the evening of the 7th June Bruce Springsteen was serenading Anfield but earlier in the day it was the bowling of Elliot Holmes that sparked the fire that saw off Towcesterians 2nds for a total of 15 all out. The first ball of the match by Elliot was perfect: a well-directed bouncer that the opener couldn’t control and hooked the ball tamely to Vipul at backward square leg (a field placing that was the skipper’s only contribution to the game apart from winning the toss). Elliot then proceeded to continue with a quite brilliant spell of fast bowling, producing a double wicket maiden in his second over and then two more victims to end up with figures of 6 overs, 5 wickets for 4 runs. Good fast bowlers work in tandem, and credit should also be given to Alfie Richardson whose spell of 6 overs for 7 runs included 4 maidens and some unplayable deliveries. With wickets outscoring runs (2 for 5 at one point) it was time to turn to Paul W and Jake M for some more overs.

Many of us were expecting the opposition to rally and work to produce a decent total but credit to our bowling for continuing to keep the pressure on: PW’s command of line, length, and movement was, as ever, exemplary and he took 4-3 (including a fine stumping from Ryan).The Horton fielding was excellent, keeping up the intensity we had talked about before the match, with some fine catching from Abhinav in particular.

With a quick turnaround it was over to the Two Monks to chase down the total in 7 balls. After the nail-biting victory last week it was great to see a very different kind of win this week.

4th XI vs. Great Oakley CC 3rd XI

With rain and thunderstorms predicted, nothing delights a captain more than getting those “are we playing” messages on a Saturday morning!!! But what was interesting that the Legends were playing away at Gt. Oakley on an Astro wicket – so if there was ever a chance of rain there was more chance of us getting a game than anyone else.
Normally the 4th XI bat first but today was a day to know the total and run rate was needed for the win. All three senior players in the politest way mentioned this to the captain who won the toss and changed the habit of a lifetime – and decided to bowl. Straight into the action was Harry Street ( 5-2-6-1) and Alex Monk (6-3-7-2) who got Oakley reeling at 8-2 in the first few overs. There was a rebuild in the offing but spinners Kris Sainath (10-2-4-25) and Jai Satheesh (8-0-25-3) but a stop to that with regular wickets and some very sharp catching in the slips. The moment of the match came from Alex Monk catching in the deep their danger batsman Fred Abrahams. We were kept in the dirt for a while and Oakley were not going to give up easily. We had to work for every wicket and in the end Oakley were bowled out for 68.

Keeping the bating lineup as planned we opened with Harry Street (10) and Jeremy Jesu (24*). Jemery classy as ever and Streety his stoic self slowly chipped away at the total with Sai Kumar finishing the job off in the 19th over. Oalkey were a young but canny opponent and credit to them and their captain Stu Reece for getting the game on and both teams playing in the right spirit. With an early end, to the 3rd XI game, some of them saw the finale of our game and then the rest of us all headed off to watch either the 1st XI or the 2nd XI – followed by a lovely BBQ at Denton Road!!!

As as it turns out the league leaders Yelvertoft was the only match that got abandoned and the Legends are less than a win away from being top of the league!!
Next week we at home against Kettering Town!!! Let Go Antlers!!!