3s vs Ramsdell 2s report by Sean Merriman
The 3s were looking for another victory following last week’s impressive effort away to St Mary’s. Half the team were feeling the effects from trips to Lord’s yesterday, and were keen to bat first at the real home of cricket. Nick won the toss and chose to bat, giving Sober Alf time to return home to collect his whites!
Skipper Bryant and Charlie Terry opened, both firmly in the category of “due a score”, and got off to a steady start in the face of some tidy bowling, including one bowler releasing the ball from behind the umpire. Both offered early chances, Nick put down by the opener coming down the hill, and Charlie picking out mid-on, probably not realising how expensive these drops might be.
Charlie (7) had another attempt at providing catching practice, and Netty joined Nick in trying to see off the openers, 25-1. Scoring wasn’t easy, particularly off the lad bowling from 30 yards. It was a glorious summer’s day, and Netty was in the mood for a barbeque, calling Nick through for a run where he barely made it halfway, thankfully the throw was just as bad as Netty’s call.
This kicked Nick into gear as he started to find the boundary. The change bowlers had less discipline than the openers, and Nick was ruthless on anything short, motoring towards his half century from 53 balls as Ramsdell started to regret their drop.
At some point Nick lost the ability to run, but more than made up for it by his ability to find the boundary at will. One change bowler was taken from 16 from his first over, before letting one go over his head for four at deep midwicket.
Nick raced to his ton from 82 balls (just the 29 balls from his second fifty) soon after drinks as Ramsdell looked utterly deflated. With Nick losing more and more mobility, he continued to swing harder and gave both mid-on and mid-off the run-around, while Netty also brought up his half century, making good use of the Netty Nurdle (a sweep shot played standing upright, down towards fine leg).
Youngsters Charlie W and Henry T were regretting turning down the chance to open, and had to settle for seeing who could get more height on the swings. Neither managed to reach the lofty heights of Mr Bryant, who looked embarrassed to reach his 150.
The club record came and went without much bother as the Byrant bludgeoned the ball to all parts. Into the final over, Nick launched one over midwicket for his first six, to bring up the double ton, as we finished 295-1, Nick 205*(131), Netty an impressive 75*. Good toss to win skip.
After another lovely tea from Cara, Merlot and Jamie were sharing the new ball. Lost property Le Roux in the wrong trousers, borrowing from Spreadie having yet again left his whites at home. Nick proved he didn’t quite have the midas touch, tipping one over the bar at slip off Merlot, while at the other end Feathers Mcgraw beat the outside edge on a number of occasions but couldn't find a breakthrough.
Charlie Williams came into the attack and picked up a couple of wickets with clever use of the slower ball, both caught by Charlie Terry at mid-off. Hursty was on at the other end but couldn’t bank on the same reliability from the field. Huge shout out to Stenners, for a lovely step-over of one for four at fine leg.
As we continued to search for more wickets, young Henry Terry and slightly less young Andrew Culton entered the attack. Henry found the outside edge, only for the skipper to put down a regulation chance at slip, hero to zero very quickly.
Cults continued to plug away as the batters struggled to hit him off the square, while four-bag Alf entered the game to re-live his heroics from the week before. Alfie mixed things up nicely, with one slower ball that was pushing Cults for speed. Sober Alf (2-34) did pick up a couple, with catches at cover from Henry, and a Lightning Mc-Cults taking a good reaction catch at gully.
The skipper turned to Merlot, Charlie W (2-46) and Darcy Shorts to try and lead us to another bonus point, and Jamie (1-17) got a well-deserved wicket by finding the top of off. Ramsdell finishing 200-5, as we won by 95 runs.
Superb win led by Nick and Netty, thanks to groundsman Paul for producing such a fantastic pitch for us to play on.
Player of the match: Nick Bryant, 205*
Muppet of the week: Jamie Le Roux
