Wickets tumble at Long Buckby!

We arrived at Long Buckby on Saturday Morning pleasantly surprised to see that despite the amount of rain that had fallen during the week that the ground was playable and that with a bit of luck with the weather that we were finally going to get a game in.

Once the covers had been removed it was clear that the soft, green damp pitch was one that we would have loved to bowl on first. So it was inevitable that Kev would lose the toss and be forced to bat.

Horton's innings started with debutant Keith Halford opening the batting with Harry Knibbs. The first over saw Keith confidently putting the fourth ball away for 4 and the pair of them negotiating the first 5 overs facing a variety of wides, low bounces and occasional watchful deliveries from the opening bowlers Pete Incley and Max Harris. It was clear that the ball wasn't coming through and that coupled with the slow outfield was going to make scoring runs difficult. In the fifth over Harry went for an attacking drive only to get underneath it and be caught for 1 at Mid-On. The next over saw Keith depart also bowled for 4 by the only straight ball of the over. 7 for 2. Mike McDonnell and Nik Patel put on 8 further runs before Mike chased a wide one and was caught at slip off Harris , 15 for 3. Ishtaq Hussain joined Nik and they stuck around for a while before Nik also attacked a ball that stuck in the soggy surface and ballooned up to Mid -On, 24 for 4 and we were now in trouble. Ish playing an uncharacteristic defensive knock stuck around for awhile with Ian street before becoming Joe Oliver's first scalp, bowled for 6, 32 for 5. Ian and Dan Hyde moved the score on to 44 before Ian was also bowled by Oliver for 8 hard fought runs. This brought Skipper Kev to the crease and when he was bowled for 0 next ball we were now reeling at 44 for 7. The final three wickets fell for just 2 more runs, Dan caught and bowled for 4, Ted Flynn being trapped LBW for 1 and George Pitt being bowled for 0. Horton had been dismissed for 46 in just 27.2 overs. The pick of Long Buckby's Bowlers being Joe Oliver who finished with figures of 4-16.

We took to the field knowing that runs were going to be difficult to come by and that we had to bowl well to make it difficult for them. Horton opened the bowling with George Pitt and Kev. The first breakthrough came with Kev bowling Max Harris in the second over. Apparently when asked by number three what the bowler was like he answered "He's just and old boy who bowls at the stumps." In Kev's 5th over he picked up two more scalps and Long Buckby were struggling at 10 for 3. When we took the tea interval after 15 overs they were 13 for 3. George finished with figures of 0-8 off his 7 overs, while Kev finished his 10 overs with figures of 10-8-3-4. Keith Halford took the 4th wicket with the score on 24 with Ian taking the next at 27. Mitchell Boffin took the 6th wicket with the score on 34 . Long Buckby's number 3 batsman
D.Sisadiya stuck around for a long time was dropped twice , nearly run out and scratched around for his 27 not out that finally got Long Buckby over the line 47 for 6 after 34 overs.

A frustrating afternoon knowing that just an extra 30-40 runs for us would have been enough to win this game comfortably. We go on to next week , a home fixture against Weldon at Grange Park in the knowledge that we need to score more runs to give our impressive bowling attack something to go at.

Report by Kevin Taylor 3rd Team Skipper.