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[tom line]

Very slow and dry pitch yesterday we won the toss and batted thinking it was going to deteriorate as the game went on. It was really hard to time anything and there bowling was tight. Lost my opening partner for just 4 and our number 3 came out and tried raising the run rate, ending up with 54* after batting for 35 overs of our 40, I got out in the 24th for 30 to one that popped a little and took my glove strangled down the leg side. Eventually finished 129-6 off our 40
The oppo chased it down in 35 overs (shows they struggled with the pitch too) and 6 down though they were 70-5 after 20 when we thought a win was on the cards but their best player of the game came and smacked a flurry of boundaries and their young keeper got 30 to see them home

[t2ylo]

Played in a cracker yesterday
We made 175-9 which should have been more after a real good start.
They ended 173ao with our 13 year old bowler defending 3 in the final over and taking 2 wickets to win
Two of us dads got runs & both of our sons took 3fers - low league father/son cricket will extended my career I think!!!
And like all last over wins we all went to the pub.
Opposition brilliant bunch & very gracious.
In bat news... I'm using an incredible MRF at the moment that is as good as any bat I've ever had

[Tailendfielder]

We won quite easily, 8 wicket win after bowling them on a drying pitch for 136.

Personally i got 36* to go with two 39's a 29* and 4. Average is doing ok but id like to kick on and score some bigger runs. I've been getting out in all manner of ways so there is no obvious flaw to work on. Maybe less beers on a friday....

Had a strange one keeping today. One of their lads hit the ball straight up. After initially misjudging it i ran towards the ball, completely demolishing the stumps (without realising) and the dived into the batsman who hadn't moved and the ball hit him on the helmet and went safe. Never seen that before. I imagine it was all quite comical from the sidelines.

[GoodLeave]

Would be an interesting one for the umpires, is a batsman obliged to move?

[SwingAndMiss]

Played top of the league yesterday, won by 197 runs!!! Made 246 and bowled them out for 49. Getting tight at top of the league, hope we can keep it up. On a personal note, got my second duck of the week, would struggle to hit a beach ball at the minute

[Tailendfielder]

Would be an interesting one for the umpires, is a batsman obliged to move?

Im not sure, but the guys watching said he didnt move and had no idea where the ball was, so don't think there was any point in making a fuss.

[roco]

Batsmen does not have to move but can't obstruct on purpose by moving into path  of fielder

[beaver5]

Played my first league game for many years in the Worcester League yesterday, having stopped playing due to having young kids and a wife who works weekends.  It couldn't have gone any better on my debut for my new club. Played for the 2's and opposition got 231 for 5 off 45. This was largely thanks to an explosive 59 in just 5 overs from a young lad towards the end. He did a good job of wrecking my tidy spell and resulted in me finishing with 1-49 off 7 overs. 

I came in at 30-2 and wanted to be as positive as possible but without taking too many risks. We kept ourselves well on target but kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. I finished up 103 not out as we won with 2 overs to spare at 232-7. When I walked out to bat our opening bowler said if you get a ton I'll buy the jug, and too be fare he was true to his word! 

[six and out]

We won again yesterday (against last season's league winners). Thats 4 on the spin and puts us top of the league!

We won the toss and batted 1st on an absolute road. I got 15 having over the top of a very good yorker from their opening bowler. Our skipper got a well composed 80* and our number 6 got an absolutely amazing 104* off 75 balls, he scored his 2nd 50 off just 21 balls!

We finished 297/4 off our 44. Then we bowled them out for 195. Which was a really great performance considering how good the wicket was.

[Buzz]

In club cricket if a player scores a ton, it is very rare that his team loses.
Sounds like a super game.

[pablomarmite]

We had a cracker yesterday. Top of table clash. Was nervous we were missing a couple my H4l out of action. Turned up they had a great side. Opened up with a quick South African. Remember this was 2s and previous week we played a team who didn't know if the ball hit the legs it wasn't a wide. I went early for two plenty of sledging they wanted it or tbh the captain did the rest were sound. We lost wickets regularly but a 3 wicket maiden knocked stuffing out of us. Kids dragged us to 145 despite captain asking the quick opener to go round round wicket and bounce a 14 year old.
At tea I wasn't confident but kids bowled brilliantly until the opening quick came in at 4 and began smashing it everywhere for quick 30 before another kid yorked him. Again like us they lost wickets regularly but with 6 overs to go they needed 30 with 4 wickets in hand and two new bowlers. Me with offies at one end slow left arm at other. By this stage their skipper was in first ball I bowled full toss he hit for 1 then the set batsman hit the second ball full toss to slip who caught a cracker.
Their skipper told the new batsman I don't know what he is doing as he hasn't landed one! First up I beat the bat with the slider next one an offie dragged him out and stumped game on!
Skipper dragged them to last over dropped twice they needed 6 off other spinner in last over. First ball smashed out to long on looked 4 all way but plugged got 2 then 2 dots and 1 so skipper on strike. Ball hit out to deep square boundary easy one but he went for two terrible throw but keeper got it dived forward smashed stumps it was s close one but their guy gave it out. We won by one run!
Great win and fair dues to giving the run out and the stumping. The 3 youngsters were brilliant they bowled their quota and all batted and that is what 2s is about.

[ppccopener]

Over in Middlesex life gets hard in div 1, but there were some plus points.

Stats wise we shipped 271 in 53 overs and got rolled in 25 overs for 80 odd. So far pretty bad Saturday. I'm an optimist thou so here are the plus points 

A 13.5 year old Middlesex Colt got a hundred against us, pretty much technically and temperamentally perfect. The joy on his face was priceless. The standard some of these youngsters at are is amazing.

I volunteered to open and was last out for 30(!) which finally got my season going as I found some form facing a bloke who was genuinely quick for our standard.

The oppo sledged me from ball one till I was out and then asked me to come and play for them! 

It's a funny old game sometimes. Strangely an enjoyable game, we've gone up a big step in standard and it's tough.

Onto next week!

[smilley792]

Strange game yesterday.

Third vs second.


We won toss and batted.

I opened and was seeing it like a beach ball. Unfortunately as per I put a rank full toss straight down longnons throat.
I departed for 43 of 22 and after 8 overs we were 53 for 1.

After 23 overs we were 92 for 8!! It seems I was batting on a different track to everyone else( keeping low, odd one  popping)

We had a good 9th wicket partnership and finish 159 all out of 39 of our 46 overs.

Oppos were cruising  it at 110 for 2 with 12 overs left. Sensible batting and the pitch seemed the one I was batting on.

Then either they choked, or the pitch became the minefiled once again(hard to judge from last 20 overs of third man/longon.
As the finished 151 all out with just 9 balls remaining.


Full points and as top lost, we moved top.

Tight division though, still could be one of 6 teams take it this year.

[LEACHY48]

Great game Saturday - we posted 240 off our 50 overs on a fairly poor deck I opened and hit 15 and got a decent nut to get me out - need to stop falling over to the off side however as a decent inswinger seems to make my life very uncomfortable. We skittles them for 140 odd in 25 overs only one of them seemed to value their wicket but we fielded very well and had a great buzz throughout which is something I really enjoy. We move into 2nd as top lost in a surprise result. Really tight division with not much separating the top 4. Sundays game was very different with both sides only fielding 10 hey batted first and got 150 on a seamer friendly deck we knocked it off in 18 overs 2 down me getting 61 and my partner 59 in an undefeated 125 stand. Decent weekend of cricket all round.

[Lumsden]

Had a cracking friendly this afternoon. Won toss and opted to bat as I was led to believe the opposition were quite weak so I didn't want the scenario of chasing a low total where some of our players would not get a bat or a bowl.

Given my previous scores this season have been 5, 4, 2, 0, 0* and 0, I decided I would give the visiting bowlers some early encouragement by opening with myself but along with @sultanofswing (who is a proper batsman), we put on around 50 after 10 overs.  We then lost 2-3 wickets including an LBW to a textbook forward defensive but our umpire was only just getting started as a few overs later he then gave me out LBW in a similar fashion. In the fairness I only got an inside edge rather than the full face of the bat and sadly have to confess that I was more than mildly disenchanted with the decision as I trudged slowly off the field after scoring 40. However my dismissal actually worked in our favour as both my own innings and that of the team's had stagnated a bit by that point but some late order hitting (coupled with batsmen who can run rather than hobble) saw us reach 187 before we were all out in the final over (40th).

The rumour that our visitors couldn't bat turned out to be quite ill founded as both the openers got their team off to a very good start and even the loss of a wicket didn't really dent their run chase. Finally a double change of bowling saw the introduction of @sultanofswing (off-spin) who applied scoreboard pressure that was required that the opposition never recovered from. Our wicketkeeper was also on good form this afternoon with 2 stumpings and a run out so their innings closed around 15-20 runs short.

It was an excellent game of cricket where all our team batted and 9 of them bowled.