A dramatic end to a weird season....

For our last Sunday game of the season we were welcomed by Grange Park to a sunny Foxfields. Playing in Division 9 we knew they would be a relatively strong opposition for us and we strengthened our team slightly on the day with the inclusion of Kev Taylor and Ben Jordan for their first Sunday games of the year and Finn Herrington and James Dadge coming back into the side.

With the sun out and a rock hard looking pitch, both captains would have batted if they won the toss but unfortunately Alan lost it meaning we were in the field to start with.

Tom Hilton and James Dadge were our opening bowlers and bowled some good lines to the openers. Skipper Jonny Rust looked in good touch and was the much more aggressive of the two whilst Jon Tiley looked a little out of form and struggled to get bat on ball. James was generating good pace and bounce which surprised both Tiley and Alan behind the wicket when a fast nick flew in and out of Alan's gloves which should really have been taken to break the stand. Shortly after this James bowled Rust for 22 with the score on 39 but unfortunately (for our keeper) after a slow start, Tiley started to play a few shots. After 8 overs the score was 39-1 and with plenty of bowling at our disposal, it was time for a change with Sam Mullaney coming on for Tom and Kev replacing James. Sam kept things tight whereas Kev was hit for a 4 and 6 in his opening over but got his revenge in the following over when he dismissed the same batsman for 10, well caught with a juggling catch by Dylan. Kev then took another wicket in his 4th over when we finally dismissed J Tiley thanks to a good catch by Tom Hilton. It was time for some spin with Finlay Moffat replacing Sam and taking a wicket with his second ball which turned nicely and hit middle stump. Finlay then took another wicket in his next over to an excellent and deceptively casual looking one handed catch by Mitch Boffin at midwicket. This brought together two left handers in Khalid and Poncelet and they put together an excellent stand of 88 that took the wind out of our sails a little after a small flury of wickets. Both batsmen pounced on anything short or overpitched to punish us with 4s and to be truthful, we didn't really test them early enough in their innings. We tried more bowlers in Finn Herrington and Mitch Boffin without any luck and had to wait until the 32nd over for our next wicket when Ben bowled Poncelet for 43 to break the stand and then after bowling nicely, Adam Willis bowled Khalid for 29 in the very next over to give us hope of restricting the total to something manageable. The next two batsmen then put together another stand which we couldn't break and put on another 47 runs in the last few overs against James and Kev to take Grange Park to a score of 229-7. We hadn't bowled or fielded as well as we could (too many byes) and so felt that they'd got a few too many and knew we would have to bat extremely well to chase the score down.

Adam and Kev went out to open the batting and looked solid in putting on 39 runs in 8 overs before Adam mis-timed a drive and was caught in the covers for 11. Dylan joined Kev and both batsmen respected the good balls whilst ensuring they didn't miss out on anything loose. The stand was worth 53 in around 11 overs when Kev was caught for 31 off the bowling of the very frugal Tony Adams. Mitch Boffin joined Dylan but was out bowled by Adams for 1 and when Tom was also out cheaply to Adams, we had lost 3 wickets for 7 runs all to Adams. When Dylan was out for an excellent 42 when looking well set the score was 109-5 and the target of 230 was looking a litlle far off. Sam Mullaney and Finlay Moffat came and went without adding too much to the score and at 135-7, we were up against it with the opposition sensing victory. Skipper Alan joined Finn Herrington who was looking in good touch and already on 12 runs. The two put on 37 in a little over 4 overs thanks to a few boundaries but when Finn fell for a fluent 23, the equation was still 58 runs from 6 overs. A couple of quiet overs followed as Grange Park brought back their opening bowlers which meant 55 runs were needed from 4 overs, this then became 34 from the last two as Ben and Alan ran on every ball and hit 4s when possible. When we scored 17 from the penultimate over and cheered on by our excellent and vocal supporters, we sensed something special may be on as our opposition started to get nervy. When Ben was run out for a brilliant 27 in the last over going for a quick single, James Dadge came out and ready to run everything and anything. We took 13 off the last over but ultimately came up 4 short in what had been an amazing run chase and were left to rue what could have been.

Still, it was a fitting end to the season in many ways and we were pleased that despite not bowling and fielding our best, we had achieved our highest batting score of the season by a distance and pushed a strong Grange Park side very close in a game played in the right spirit on a decent track.

In what has been a shortened and odd season in many ways, there have been some great games on Sundays with good wins and some excellent team and personal achievements along the way. Many thanks to all who have played, helped and supported the team on our journey.

On to 2021...

Alan Pitt
Sunday XI Captain