On a blustery evening with rain in the air and the wind in my hair your correspondent was fortunate to take part in a mammoth run chase by the massed ranks of the Mighty Marsh Mid-weekers – even coping with the effects of Ollie’s amazing trousers.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl first on the still spongy artificial wicket Marsh made early inroads into a sprightly Westbury team with Crouchy, reinvigorated by his Southend sojourn, taking 2 early wickets. but then things started to go pear shaped. A combination of rapid fire running between the wickets, the wet outfield making Marsh fielders turn like Volvos, a far too many thick edges finding safety Westbury pressed ahead – the scoreboard ticking over too fast for our likings.
A combination of hit and miss batting and some good catches brought Westy 4 wickets but when the scoreboard stopped at 153 the crew were still somewhat despondent.
That said the indominantable Marsh spirit was soon to the fore – with banter aplenty as Joe and Ollie kept the bowlers at bay and the scoreboard moving – but far too slow for the assembled masses. That said Stu was able to keep us going (once we’d asked Marcelle to give us some space) with tales of Charlbury, lesbians, Tacky, Crossy and a lack of food and drink. (Seems the crew made up for that later – Ed)
Anyway with 5 overs to go the task seemed vast. But then Joe seemed to be hitting the ball better, Ollie was scampering between the wickets and for some unfathomable reason Westbury elected to bring on a bowler ( I shan’t name and shame him) whose first 3 balls were Wide, Wide and 6. Then Joe was out chasing another wide one. Stu came and went rapidly and with less than 2 overs to go it seemed it in the balance again.
But never fear striding to the wicket came the Skip, first off a few sighters, and then the final over – a 6 blissfully clubbed to square leg, a scampered 2 and a 4 over the covers and we were home. The banter was even better and we all managed to cope with the Jeacock’s sartorial inelegance – oh and the smell of Ollie’s trousers!
