Marsh scraped to a deserved win against high-fliers Charlbury on a splendid day in a lovely setting. Marsh were looking forward to playing in front of a few people with the beer and food festival next door and having won the toss, we got off to a flier with Carlos and Wayne bowling with great skill and control to keep the home sides batsmen firmly under pressure. At 32-5 marsh were very happy with there work and with the music going, it was a carnival atmosphere!!
As Abba powered out from the beer tent, Marsh entered into the spirit as Satty busted some killer moves in the slips and Frankie had a little sing-a-long down at fine leg!! Runs were difficult to come by, as Marsh learn’t some of the lessons of last week by throwing themselves around and making Charlbury work for every run. With some decent hitting Charlbury got up to 168-8, which despite our excellent start, we would have been very happy with at the start of the day on a good wicket with a very fast outfield. Wayne (12-7-13-2) and Carlos (12-5-30-3) were the pick of the bowlers and really destroyed the top order to put Marsh in charge.
Marsh settled in for spot of nosh as the beer continued to flow, with Tacky longily looking on dreaming of that first pint! Olly and Joe got us off to a great start, working to ball around well and punished anything loose. This gave us a platform on which to build and with batting to come, Marsh felt very much in control as the players took a rather “windy” stroll around the field, stopping off along the way to admire the “scenery” and a very curious incident in the cornfield, behind what has now been christened “Crossys hedge”!!
With Olly (39) and Joe (38) it was now down to the rest of the strong batting line-up to see us home, but in true Marsh fashion, we didn’t make it an easy ride!! After a couple of quick wickets and some good spin bowling, Marsh played carefully knowing that one big over would come along at some point….and that it did! Stu (40) hit 18 from one over and Crossy a mighty maximum to leave Marsh only eight from victory, but three quick wickets sent Marsh reeling and it was down to the experienced Tacky and Carlos to see us home, which the skipper did with a couple of much needed boundaries. We breathed a huge sigh of relief as we finally gained victory as silence descended on the home crowd!
We did our best to blow it, but we managed to get home for a pleasing victory against one of the top teams. With the business now done, we were now looking to enjoy the festivities next door and having dispensed some massive fines with what can only be described as “graphic” scenes against a fence going on behind us, it was time to get involved! All we now needed was John Nettles and Sergeant Jones to appear and the day would have been like a scene from Midsomer Murders!! (Always been a big fan of Jones, i’ve always felt he added an extra dimension to the role, much to Tackys disbelief, having always been an admirer of Sergeant Troy….this could be a big talking point over the coming weeks!).
Having failed in their hunt for scoff, Marsh didn’t let that worry them too much as the lads stoved into the beer and enjoyed the very “free” entertainment (I think you all know what I mean boys!). Luckily, Will came prepared with his line-dancing outfit, so he fitted in perfectly! It was then back to the Dog to enjoy our victory and the party advanced into the early hours, resulting in Freddie and Tacky laying on a Yoga masterclass in the bar…….top lunges Tack! Having woken up Mrs Flonners (sorry Vics), the boys went off into the night having had a great day! Great setting, beer festival, splendid facilities, two good sets of players, some fine fillies and most importantly……a win for the Gibbon.
Well done lads. Come on, lets get a run going!!
Stu
