That Smell

What is your favourite James Bond film? If it is Moonraker or The Living Daylights, leave now. You disgust me.

I have a soft spot for Live and Let Die. Roger Moore and Jane Seymour have a certain chemistry; there is the New Orleans Jazz vibe; the spitting law enforcement officer and of course the sinister top hat wearing bald voodoo witch doctor rising out of the grave.

Some voodoo magic was visited on the Field of Dreams yesterday (possibly).

The scent of victory was in everyones nostrils before the match started yesterday for the visit of basement side, Nondescripts. They had lost all their matches and we expected to win.

Having won the toss we invited Nondies to have a bat on a wicket that looked full of runs. They never broke free of the shackles as we took wickets regularly and kept things tight in the field. Northern Gravy bowled with no luck again but should have had at least 3 wickets. Laurel and Hardy mixed containment and attack in the middle of the innings and took 4 wickets between them; 2 smart catches for the boyman Perera, a great tumbling catch from Tee Kay and a smart run out from The Caretaker being the highlights. Stimpo was the pick of the bowling, ending up with 4 for 26, including the top three. I can smell a fivfer is on the way as Jack improves every week. He out thought every batsman yesterday.

Some particularly good cheese and onion sandwiches were eaten as part of a fine tea in the oppressive heat before we set about chasing a target 100 short of what was needed.

It was during tea that the voodoo curse struck. Was it revenge for last seasons humane dispatch of a a rabbit by Skipper Gates coming back to haunt him? I don't know. What I do know is that I have spent a few hours this morning washing and disinfecting all my kit and I have had to buy a new cap.

We set about the chase with a real purpose as The Judge and Jimmy Perera put on 40 odd for the first wicket at 5 an over. Vish was joined by Matt as they took the score to 119. Vish again batted beautifully scoring his 70 from only 88 balls, including 14 boundaries. The rest was a formality as Cookie and Matt saw us home in a little over 30 overs and we were done and dusted by 6pm.

Results elsewhere mean that we are top with 10 points more than at this stage last year. The next four weeks are critical for us, and nothing less than 100 points from these games is acceptable.

News from elsewhere: The seconds had a bad day (more below), the thirds had a good day(see earlier blog) and the fourths recorded their first victory to leave them mid table.

The challenge for all three sides seems to be finding consistency and a run of three victories for any of them will see them challenging at the top of their respective divisions

Disappointing outing for the 2nds!

Seconds were out at Great Tew and were beaten convincingly by 6 wickets. Didcot didn’t have a good day defending their total of 202 for 6.

Didcot batted first and scored 202 for 6 in their 45 overs. Great Tew bowling attack was accurate and Didcot lost both the openers when the total was 32. Then came a 102 partnership between Brad Lynch (61) and Chris Parsons 33. Both batted very sensibly and should have gone to score much more; Chris playing a ‘lazy’ shot was caught at square leg and Brad got himself run out. Andy Griffiths chipped in with 16 and Ross Fryatt was not out on 22. With wickets in hand we could have pushed it a bit further, may be!

There wasn’t anything in the wicket but accurate bowling was required as Great Tew did.

Didcot didn’t have a good day in the bowling and fielding department. However there were some positives; we did take 4 catches, Jose Taboada at slip in the third (4^th?) attempt, Rob Keat at covers, Andy Griffiths at covers a diving catch woken up by his team mates shouting ‘catch’, and an excellent diving catch by Ross Fryatt behind the stumps. If we did take the other catches as well things might have been different. The batsmen who was 55 not out was dropped twice!

Bowling wasn’t as accurate as Great Tew. Although we took a couple of wickets early on they came at a price.

Andy Griffiths took two wickets but at a cost. Rob Keat took 2 wickets not cheap either but he created the chances that we missed.

Sam Smith and Carl Hancock bowled well but were unlucky not to pick-up any wickets, especially Carl’s 6 over spell was fiery and accurate missed the edge 90% of the time.

Disappointing day out, only collecting 8 points for the day’s work. Hopefully lessons learnt and better things will follow soon!