Team: Adam Bailey, Joe Barnett†, Jamie Coleman, Jack Collins, Jack Hadlow, Tom King, Tom Lopez, Kian Norton-Reeves, Craig Smith*, Edward Wright.
A lovely Sunny Sunday, Westcliff (who beat us convincingly earlier in the season) as opponents and 11 players due to turn up. Craig wins the toss and decides to bat.
Craig Smith and Joe Barnett opened the batting since the planned number 2 was not present. And never turned up. So only 10 players then.
Craig played really well, hitting the short ball for 4 and 6, defending the good balls and driving the odd one along the ground. He ended up retiring on 27 not out. Joe was less successful trying to pull / cut a ball which was a bit too high for him resulting in his being caught at mid off.
Tom King batted number three and gave Craig able support. When Craig retired Adam Bailey came in, played a good solid stroke quickly followed by an attempted big hit. He missed the ball, the ball hit the wicket and he was out.
The rest of the team generally batted without much attack. Our defence has improved a lot over the last few weeks but we don’t have the stroke makers lower down the order. Jamie Coleman was the only one to make runs before being caught on 16. Tom Lopez, for the second week in a row, tried for a single which wasn’t really there in an effort to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
At the interval we were 82 for 6 – 3 caught, 1 bowled and 2 run outs,
In the second half Jamie and Tom Lopez opened conceding a boundary each in the first two overs. Neither could keep the run rate down given the clean hitting of Westcliff’s top 4. We allowed them to swing their arms and they did so.
Neither Jack (Collins or Hadlow) had any more success and Westcliff cruised to an easy 9 wicket victory in the 8th over. Given the game was over so quickly Westcliff asked if we could play on to give the rest of their batters a go. I agreed to this but it quickly became apparent that the players hearts and minds were not in it so we called it a day.
Westcliff were excellent hosts and it is a shame that we were not able to give them a closer game. Maybe next year.