Rocket Man James Dadge blows away Long Buckby.

This decision looked debatable when after 2 overs we were 3 for 2 with both openers Ian Street and Harry Knibbs both being bowled for 0. This brought Mike McDonnell and Nik Patel to the crease but both settled the rot taking us to 41 for 2 after 10 overs. Nik in particular looking in fine form hitting 3 consecutive boundaries to see off one of the opening bowlers. The last ball of the 10th oversaw a lifting ball catch the gloves of Nik and he went for 19. Mike continued with Ray Mirza until the 17th over when he nicked Joe Oliver’s first ball to the keeper for 22. Horton was now 48 for 3 with last weekend’s batting heroes Finn Herrington and Vignesh Sudhakar next in. Ray was the next man to go, caught and bowled by Oliver for 4 and quickly followed by Vignesh who was bowled by Oliver for 0. We were now in a bit of bother at 61 for 6. After a couple of sweetly hit 4’s Finn was caught for 8 and Skipper Kev bowled for 2 by Oliver. (66 for 8 after 25 overs) The tail wagged a little with James Dadge, Ted Flynn and George Pitt adding what proved to be another valuable 13 runs before George was out caught for 3. Not what the skipper had in mind when the coin landed heads, All out for just 79 in 32.4 overs. Long Buckby looked suitably happy with themselves with Joe Oliver finishing with impressive figures of 8-2-5-11.

We knew that we had to bowl and field well to give ourselves a chance of making a game of it. However as soon as James Dadge had the new cherry in his hand and steamed in for his first ball the mood changed. Pace accuracy and bounce had the opposition in immediate trouble, with Holmes gone for 0, LBW in the first over. (1 for 1) A flurry of boundaries from the other opener off Ray Mirza saw Long Buckby reach 26 off 8 overs when James struck again bowling Nick Smith for 24 with a fantastic delivery clipping the top of off stump. This was followed by James having number 3 caught behind for 7 by Ted, suddenly 35 for 3 off 11 overs. A fabulous spell of hostile pace bowling by James who had figures of 3 for 6 when he was forced to have to come off. The fourth wicket fell in the next over with Max Harris dragging on from Finn Herrington 37 for 4 and we could sense an opportunity. Kev came on to replace James and got into the action having opposing skipper Matt Aitken caught by Vignesh at mid-wicket leaving most of his skin on the astro-turf diving forward, 48 for 5. Joe Oliver and Dan Lewis put on 18 more runs before Oliver top-edged a sweep to Nik off Ian Street for 14 followed 2 overs later by Kev bowling the next guy for 0. Long Buckby were now reeling at 67 for 7 still needing 13 more runs for victory with 3 wickets remaining. While Lewis and Dias were still in, hitting Ian over the top for a lofty boundary the opposition was still looking favourite to come out on top. What followed was truly astonishing, first a crazy run out, as a result of swift fielding by Vignesh 75 for 8. Kev brought James back on and with his fifth ball, he got Lewis to play a miss-timed drive straight to Harry Knibbs 77 for 9. This brought young Jake Incley in to face Ian needing three for victory but he was unable to hold out being trapped LBW for 0 and the 3rds had pulled off a remarkable win by 2 runs. James Dadge, the star of the show finishing with outstanding figures of 7overs, 2 maidens, 4 wickets for 8 runs.

We had turned around a poor batting performance and bowled Long Buckby out for 77 in 26 overs, amazing! There is still work to do on both our batting and fielding, (another 4 catches going down) but our bowling is a match for any team in this division. Fabulous performance and we go into next week’s game against league leaders Abington Phoenix full of confidence.

Result: Horton 3rds beat Long Buckby 2nds by 2 runs.
Points Horton 20 points Long Buckby 4 bowling points.

Kevin Taylor – 3rd Team Captain.