3rds complete the Great Escape!

A strong third team arrived at a cold and windy Weldon knowing that only a win would give them a chance of qualification to the next stage of the competition. For this to happen we had to secure maximum points and other results needed to fall our way.

The track looked wet and soft after the week’s lousy weather so Kev wasn’t surprised when he lost the toss and was told we were batting. Paul Wolstenholme and Ian Street opened the batting for us and were set to do battle against Weldon’s opening pair of Jacob Taylor and the wily off spin of Mark Kerfoot.

After the second over we were 1 for 1 as Paul’s eyes lit up to Kerfoot’s third delivery and he charged down the pitch and was stumped. This brought an early entrance for Mike McDonnell. Ian struggled to make any headway against the bowling of Taylor playing out three consecutive maidens before getting a good ball which clipped his off stump, 9 for 2 after 9 overs. A lot now rested on Mike and his new partner Liam Redding to steady proceedings. When Kerfoot was replaced by his slower and less accurate son it looked promising until Liam was stumped off Kerfoot junior in the same way as Paul earlier. We were now in a spot of bother at 18 for 3 after the second covid break. Mike and Graham Harris put on 25 before the young lad got one to turn and bowled Graham around his legs for 6. (39 for 4). Three runs later Nik Patel was bowled by a good ball from Weldon’s skipper Stuart Milson for a duck and we were now in serious bother at 42 for 5 off 19 overs. We were in desperate need for someone to stay with Mike and in stepped Vignesh Sudhakar. The next 12 overs saw both players accumulate with the occasional boundary and pinched 1’s and 2’s. By the 30th over we had reached 92 and Mike had reached his 50. Mike reached 58 when he mis-timed one and was caught off the skipper. Vignesh kept on going while other partners failed to stay with him. Finn Herrington was LBW first ball and then skipper Kev hit what he thought was a glorious cover drive for 4 only for the damp out field to slow it down be picked up by Weldon’s best fielder and run him out just shy of making two. Ted Flynn and George Pitt stuck around with Vignesh to see us through the 40 overs and we finished on 136 for 9. Vignesh finishing up on 33 not out, an excellent knock which gave us something to bowl at.

After a little bit of rain during the tea interval Weldon’s opening pair of Haynes and Taylor made a steady start to the reply seeing off Kev and George’s opening spells and reaching 30 without loss after 11 overs. We needed a break through and it came via a sharp stumping by Ted off Paul’s bowling in his second over. Fortunately for us Haynes walked as it was doubtful that the square leg umpire would’ve given it. Ian picked up wicket number 2 in the next over and suddenly Weldon were 36 for 2. Warren was beginning to look dangerous hitting three boundaries when the next wicket fell bowled by Ian bowling the opening bowler Taylor (sweet revenge for earlier) 62 for 3. What followed was a key moment when Warren hit one straight back to Paul, caught and bowled for 23. When he then stormed off to the far corner of the ground, throwing his bat before him we sensed that the tide was turning in our favour. Paul and Ian completed their 8 over spells with 2-21 and 2-25 respectively. Into the attack then came Finn Herrington who bowled superbly, quick and straight to pick up three quick wickets all bowled in his 6 over spell finishing with impressive figures of 3 for 11. The final wickets were picked up by Vignesh 1 for 18 off 4 overs and Kev on his return picking up the final two wickets of the Kerfoots and finishing with figures of 6.2 overs 2 for 6. We had bowled out Weldon for 103 and secured the 20 points we needed.

A great performance with the ball by everyone and good fielding had kept the pressure on the opposition throughout. Well done boys!

We left Weldon with our job done, relying on at least one result elsewhere to go in our favour. Long Buckby bowled out Abington Phoenix (top of the table) for 51 and won by 7 wickets. 1 down! Cogenhoe’s game with Geddington cancelled giving them 6 points, 2 down. However, Haddon defeated MK Air by 6 wkts and we over hauled them by three points and finished 8th in the table.
We go on to next week against whoever finishes top of the league.

Result: Horton win by 33 runs (20 points) Weldon 4 bowling points.
Final table Horton P7 W2 L4 A1 – 64 points.

Report by Kev Taylor 3rd Team Captain.