To finish off our mid season friendly's the mighty 3's found themselves back at the hollies playing against Old Colfeians,in the hope of winning their 3rd game on the trot, equalling our previous win streak record.
The team this week was the usual mix of youth and old age , [sorry i should say experience] , but in shocking case of wanting too rather spend time with your family than play cricket , our 'star' keeper and skipper , Dan Skinner was unavailable for the next 3 weeks [shocking!], This left the chief wicket burglar Baker to take the side.
In a fortunate turn of events the useless tosser didn't even have to flip a coin ,as the opposition skipper was convinced they couldn't bat so politely asked if we would bat first , on a very green pitch , Baker obliged and was keen for everyone to get a game.
The experienced Pair of Baker Sr and Lush Sr opened up and looked in fine form , making it too another 50 partnership between them , yes they may have only scored maybe 20 runs off the bat between them , but E.extras was looking in extremely good form this week.
Baker Sr departed for 12 shortly after woods , which bought Tanky in too speed up the run rate and upset the opposition fielders with his powerful shots, unfortunately he sped up the wickets column instead and departed for a duck.
In at 4 was Tom Gagg , who looked in good form striking the ball well and getting on the front foot , he batted well with Tim as they continued too keep the runs flowing despite the pitch and outfield being damp from an earlier shower ,after batting brilliantly and putting on 60 - odd [not forgetting a contribution from E.extras] Tim departed for a well made 45 yet again avoiding the jug , Tom departed shortly after for a really good 43 and has clearly been working hard to get that.
To finish the innings off with a flurry Damps and Petty had a good go with some quick scoring from damps and some good strike rotation from Leo , to have us finish on 196 for 4 , with petty 17* and Damps 27* off just 18 , our top scorer was E. extras raising his bat for a well made 52*, this was our best score of the season so far.
After a pleasant tea of meal deals and hobnobs , we trudged out for a bowl expecting it would be over very quickly , [according too there skipper anyway].
Damps and Lush Jr opened up and were bowling tight and both deserved a wicket , but the openers were suprisingly good and kept them out and not giving many chances so after a tidy spell from damps and Ben [6-1-14-0] , Peter Trott and Steve Horrocks on 3s debut were brought into the attack with the hope of a break through.
Horrocks did just that removing both the openers in quick time with a rather amusing catch from Tanky behind the stumps , tho some would suggest that Skinner wouldn't have got anywhere near it , so well kept Tanky
Peter Trott was brought on down the hill and bowled decently with good pace, barring his last over which the lefty took a liking too .
Horrocks continued his fine spell [8-0-40-4] [should of been 5] and was now joined by Burglar Baker, who managed to sneak a couple [8-0-35-3].
The most surprising moment of the day was when there attacking lefty was smacking it too all parts , Baker stuck 7 out the boundry to keep the runs down and get him off strike , the oppo's skipper was not keen on this and pulled the 'that's not the spirit of cricket ' in an attempt to play with Bakers mind and make it easier for them too win, this didn't wind stand in skip up in the slightest and hes definitely not taken up meditation too deal with it.
After all that nonsense, we went on to win the game by 17 runs with a couple of handy wickets from Westy [5-0-27-2] and a tight spell at the death from damps [7.1-1-33-0] who was very unlucky not to get a wicket.
All in all it was good to win again and get as many people a go as possible.
Thanks too damps , Tim and Nige for the help
cheers
Baker