One bout of anaphylactic shock later I am now left with a comedy Elephant Man style swollen foot, at least the heart palpitations and chronic low blood pressure have gone.
Anyway, enough of my woes. What happened against Cropredy? I hear you mutter.
Anticipation was high and the appetite was keen as we gathered at the FOD. A washout last week preceded seven days earlier by the thrashing of Banbury XX meant that we hadn't had much cricket for nearly 3 weeks.
Having lost the toss I was pleasantly surprised to find ourselves bowling anyway. We got off to a great start with an early wicket before Cropredy put together a very useful 2nd wicket partnership. we dropped a couple of chances and Hussain and Orchard made us pay. The Archbishop was particularly unlucky to remain wicketless in another fine opening spell.
With the score well past the hundred it was down to the spinners to put a brake on things. The Judge got one through the defences of Hussain with a smart catch from Bris off Jordan taking care of Orchard.
The pendulum swung and Cropredy never recovered the momentum they had enjoyed as Jules ripped through the middle order. A couple of smart catches from Crab Hands at slip and no other drops together with two run outs contributed to a decent fielding performance.
We ate our tea feeling confident we would chase down 205 and be home early.
The first 100 came up at nearly 6 an over with only the loss of one wicket, happy days. Matt made everything look very easy as he breezed to a fifty at less than a run a ball, well supported by Pritch, with another 30 odd, it all looked very comfortable.
Cropredy had other ideas. The introduction of leg spinning wunderkid S Hussain accounted for Matt; Doug soon followed Pritch back. Still we didn't need to worry, did we? 60 odd to win with Jules and Bris at the crease, on paper we were still in charge. It didn't feel like that from the boundary, I can tell you.
As if it were written in the stars we were 8 down, some smart bowling, one brilliant gully catch and some dumb batting putting the pressure right back on us. Still needing 20 odd from 4 overs. Didcot 2011 vintage doesn't win comfortably. Surely we wouldn't throw it away, would we?
Jordan went out to bat like an American Pilot hopped up on amphetamines. It worked, one boundary was followed by the biggest six anyone has ever seen at the FOD, out of the ground and onto the ring road. Fetch that!
In the end the gnarly old pro's saw us home with an over to spare and 9 down. Far tighter than it should have been, but 25 points none the less.
Credit is due to Cropredy who played some great cricket and never stopped going for the win. There league position doesn't reflect the way they played on Saturday and I'm sure their first win isn't far away.
We prepare for Horspath, top of the league and seemingly unbeatable.
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