5 New Debutants with one in the 1s!!!

This weekend saw the debut of 4 new Legends, Darpan "Shades" Bhalerao, Andrew "The Prof" Thacker, George "Bono" Leahy and Ben "The New Nick Walker" Meachem!!! It also saw Harvey Cooke make his debut in the 1s. It really shows how excellent the 4ths are in nurturing all the new talent at Horton. It was also wonderful to welcome Guv Bhangal back after getting married!!!

After 3 weeks of no cricket imposed by the weather, West Haddon was a beautiful sight. Winning the toss and looking at the strong batting line up we decided to bat and the omens looked good with Adam Willis hitting the first ball of the match for 4. But that was about it. With very good bowling from Haddon we started to struggle to get the ball off the square and very soon we were 16 for 3. We tried to build an innings around Darpan Bhalerao who started to look dangerous but got out to a stunning catch - a full blooded square cut to the u13 at backward point - it just stuck!!! After that, it looked like they brought on their even faster bowlers and that pretty much cleared up the Horton tail. Considering Haddon is an amalgamation of 3 clubs, it was not hard to see the difference in the sides, that being said the good news was that no one got out to playing lose shots - everyone was looking to score.

Defending a low total was always going to be hard, but we gave it our best shot with wickets for Viggy and Ben.

Ultimately, the result was immaterial. The team spirit was great, plenty to build on and Haddon showed us areas that we need to improve on. As Nelson Mandela said "I never lose - I either win or learn."

Thanks to Lee Willis who umpired for us and was measured in his response to the Indian Variant appealing for LBW!!!

We ride again next week!!