After the heat wave of the last few weeks it was back to the normal cricket weather of cloudy skys and the threat of rain. With last weeks victory still at the front of everyones minds and the chance to get one over on Toftsy we all went into the match looking to build on the success of the previous week.
With Lewi’ magic 50p not working this week we were put into bat on what looked like a bowler friendly wicket. The opening partnership of Jeacock Snr and Jnr were sent it to see off the new ball whilst building a solid base to build from. However after four overs this was not going to plan with both Lewis and Paul back in the pavilion with the score not even into double figures. Jules then joined Derek in the middle to give Marsh two vastly experienced players to play us out of the situation we found ourselves in. With Toftsy already saying he wanted to change in the home team dressing room the whole team was left wondering if he wanted to play for us as well as he dropped no fewer than four catches in the next few overs giving Jules, Derek and Chris big let offs.
After last weeks innings Chris was looking full of confidence and with JC going along nicely the Marsh faithful were looking forward to seeing a big partnership forming. With the score pushing three figures Toftsy finally took one behind the stumps to dismiss Chris for 24. After cameos from Mason (11) and Nick Kiam (13) Timmo joined JC in the middle for the last few overs. With some lusty blows and quick running including a run four Marsh finished on 168-7, Timmo on 20 and Jules finishing on a well deserved 75.
After another good Marsh tea, by Mrs Wyatt this week which included donuts, eclairs and to the skippers delight sandwiches with no crusts we took to the pitch confident of defending the score we had posted and discussing who would get the prized wicket of Wolvercotes number 2. We didnt have to wait long to find out with Mason doing the honours of clean bowling him sending him packing for 14 and some well deserved banter. Timmo then joined the party getting their number 3 out LBW with the longest appeal village cricket has ever seen with the batsmen nearly running two by the time the umpire raised his finger leaving Wolvercote 37-2.
With the score at drinks reaching 100-4 which included two more Mason wickets the match was finally balanced with both teams thinking they could win the game. A quick wicket followed for Marsh soon after with Ollie Selway in his shiny new boots claiming the wicket of their wayne look alike. With still 60 odd runs to get we felt that the game was there for the taking, however soon after this diminished with Paul dropping their number 6 on 0 who eventually went on to top score with 41 and win them the match. The only noticable moment in the match after this point was the first wicket for Jules in 5 years he tells us.
Having been in a strong position a few times throughout the innings it was a disappointing loss, however after earlier performances this season it was defintly an improvement against one of the strongest teams in the league. With the pussy well fed again including a fine for the first time to an opposition player we set about drinking and eating the platefuls of watermelon, cheesy balls and cake that was left over.
With the skipper on holiday next week (convienent as its the long trip to hooky) its down to us to put in another good performance with Hook Norton being one of the teams we need to aim to beat if we are going to avoid the drop!
