3rd XI - The 3's stand up and are counted!

Saturday saw the 3rd team play Long Buckby in a crucial relegation battle with the knowledge that a win would see us to safety.
We started the game leading the opposition by just 17 points but with a game in hand.

The other interesting difference to the game was that we were staging the match at Obelisk CC a ground that none of us had played at before. The ground looked splendid on arrival and they made us welcome , even supplying us with tea much to the annoyance of Kev who'd gone out and ordered it already. Still we weren't going to go hungry!!

Kev's plan was to bat first hoping to score enough runs to give us the best chance of securing the bonus points. So when he duly lost the toss again! He was pleased that The opposition skipper put us in.(Don't you just love it when a plan comes together).

The innings started in what has become a familiar fashion , Paul Wolstenholme beaten by another Jaffa 3 for 1 in the 3rd over. Two overs later Mike Mc Donnell was spectacularly caught for 1 , 10 for 2. It was now down to Dave Morgan and Tim Burt to steady the ship. They did so in wonderful fashion putting on 123 for the third wicket with both of them putting the bowling away with regularity. It was a joy to watch them both and even bought out the infamous line from James Martin that Dave produced a "Morgersboard " of strokes. The partnership was finally ended when Dave was unfortunately run out for 41. Tim however batted on hitting some fabulous shots before finally falling LBW for a magnificent 88. Tim fell with the score on 170 for 5 and the innings continued to move forwards with good contributions from Alan Pitt 12 and James Martin 15 getting us up to 200 all out in 43.5 overs. 4 bonus points secured and what Kev was after. Job half done now it was our turn to defend the total.

Long Buckby's innings started strongly and they soon got themselves up to 50 without loss. James Dadge and Kev both struggling to cope with the slope at one end. It finally took the guile of Paul to make the breakthrough having Christian Brient caught by Dadgy for 37, 56 for 1. When Paul very soon after took the scalp of the danger man Joe Oliver LBW for 25 we could sense a chance. Kev picked up the third wicket and they were suddenly 65 for 3. Stay patient and we could see victory in our grasp. However in came Max Harris who proceeded to hit Kev out of the attack and threaten to take the game by the scruff of the neck. He hit a rapid 31, so it was now time to try a change of pace. On came Elliott and Vignesh. In his first over Vignesh took the prize wicket of Harris, caught behind by Tim and followed it up the very next ball with his second scalp and with another rap on the boot very nearly grabbed a hat- trick. Meanwhile Elliott bowled a tight miserly spell picking up the next two wickets. Long Buckby were now 115 for 8 losing 4 wickets for 2 runs. Viggy's final wicket saw him take Rob Wykes for a hard fought 16 caught by Mike at mid wicket diving full length to his right. The final wicket saw Elliott bowl Gary Church for 2 and win the game for us. A fantastic performance from the boys with everyone supporting the bowlers in the field including James Martin chasing around like a cheetah and George Pitt bravely stopping everything and we finished up winning by 75 runs . Vignesh finished with superb figures of 4-0-9-3 and Elliott 7.5-1-11-3 after Paul earlier taking 3 for 30 off his 9 overs.

We had produced our best performance of the season when it mattered and we are now safe from the drop picking up 29 points.

It has been a tough season where we have shown that at times we are a match for most teams but we have fallen short in many of the games. Today's game also highlighted that it's been a real team effort and with the youngsters like Vignesh , George and James coming through into the 3's and performing so well it bodes well for next season.

We can now go on to our final match next week being able to relax and maybe stop Old from getting the 29 points they need for promotion by winning the last game.

Really well done boys!!!

A very happy Kev 3rd team captain.