Letcombe – Victory

On another stonking afternoon we headed out to Letcombe for a 40 over game with a good attitude about the team as Toups/Bows was back in town and gagging to get at the Letcombe bowling attack!

As now expected we lost the toss and had to field in the hottest part of the day (well done Nordic) and the opening bowlers Stewie “alice’s brother” Bulpitt and James “Man-Boobs” Mabbett opened the bowling. Without Gorgeous George and P.O.D having kept wicket all day saturday and having suspected Shin Splints it was left to the third choice keeper i.e me to don the gloves.

Despite this obvious disadvantage the opening bowling was tight, with the five overs going for only 4 runs and Moobs finding some good swing and Angel keeping everything there or there-abouts it was only a matter of time before the batsmen got frustrated. The breakthrough came in the 9th over, off Stewie’s bowling, after their number one batsman pushed a ball to Mid Wicket and decided to go for a single but had a mix up and after a quick piece of fielding I managed to get the bails off with the batsman short of his ground, leaving Letcome 16-1.
Only 8 runs were scored before Stewie retuned to the party (after much egging on from Peachy at slip) as their number 3 left a straight one and got bowled! The third wicket came after a change of bowling, and Muppet (also returning to the side) took over from Moobs bringing some spin into the attack. Muppet has obviously been taking lessons from Tweeky as after 3 fairly tight overs he bowled a truly woeful delivery somewhere near a full toss/beamer which the batsman decided to pull all the way down LongDog’s throat at Deep Square Leg. Letcome were now 39-3.

In the meantime, Stewie had finished his spell – a very respectable
8-4-15-1, and Peachy had taken over from him and was bringing some old fashioned pace to the attack, however he could not make a breakthrough. At the other end, after 6 overs from Muppet (20-1) Tweeky was winding up the ol’ arm. And it seemed to work as he got a wicket with his 4th ball, as the batsman got an edge and it carried through to me behind the stumps! The next two wickets fell in succession after Moobs’s return to the attack, as first ball into the new spell the batsman completely miss timed a drive and spooned it up to POD at Mid Off, and then with the new batsman being of a younger age Moobs slowed it down but still kept it accurate but the little tyke missed it and was bowled. This left letcome at 118-6 off 34 overs, but as we got tired and I started missing a few more than i should behind the stumps the last few overs were pretty heavy in terms of runs and their number 6 had his eye well and truly in and was hitting anything wide or short to gaps in the field ( he ended up 55*) and Letcome ended up collected maybe a slightly generous 153-6.

POD and Bows opened the batting, and POD unluckily got an uneven bounce early on and was bowled (3), but there was nothing he could do about it, leaving us 10-1. However Bows was batting well and was joined by Nordic and they got on scoring well and running between the wickets whenever they could, until Toups got carried away and skied a ball straight to a fielder for 23. Next in was me, but was soon back in the pavilion for 0….maybe the less said about that the better. Longdog came in at 44-3, but also didn’t last too long as he was run out off the bowling of the legendary Bomber. (Although Duncs was adamant his bat was down, the umpire didnt seem so sure) Next in was Tweeky, who scored well and did a good job supporting Nordic until he managed to leave a straight one from Bomber, getting bowled for 44. Muppet was in next and looked in good nick, scoring well with good technique and he and Tweeky did well until Tweeky also fell victim to Bomber for 17, leaving us 109-6 off 29 overs.

Next in was Mr Peach, who scored a quickfire 10 before also being sent back to the pavilion being stumped after chasing one of Bomber’s looping deliveries. Next in was Moobs, who scored 7 before being given LBW by his Dad! Next in was Angel who saved the day by being able to hang on to his wicket long enough for him to get 3 and Muppet (30*) the remaining 6 runs we needed to win! Although it did include one of the best dives I have ever seen in Sunday cricket! Well done mate, and for these acrobatics he did earn the title of Champagne moment!

The other awards for yesterday’s game we as follows:
Man of the Match – Moobs – for the bowling figures of 8-1-21-3
Pigs Ear – Longdog – his run out off the bowling of Bomber

In a new feature I’d like to include Letcombe also receive 3 out of 5
available teapots for the standard of the teas, as some of the sarnies were a little crusty – possibly Saturdays coming round again??

LongDog, I was gonna give you an anagram in the text but its quite
hard as with all the other capital letters floating about, I will have a think and try and work out how I can get one in for the next one!