Flying Start

18th May

What a fantastic start to the 2011 season, a nail biter against our local rivals High Wycombe.

The toss was won by Jamie F and we batted, a brand new pairing of Skelton and Petrie, facing good fast bowling. Tom was a little hampered having just rushed from a previous game, he was flustered, I could tell and soon was walking off for a well constructed 0. JF came in and looked in good nick. VC Milo hit a few great shots and then unluckily hit one onto his own stumps. Nouman "superstar" Aslam strode in like a gladiator, surveyed the scene and then went berserk, players, supporters, umpires !! took cover as the Flashing Blade did his stuff. The scorer was complaining he had no lead left in his pencil (easy !!). JF carried on in a supporting role and soon Chesham were 58 for 2. Nouman hit 6 fours and then retired, Parveiz had a tear in his eye as he had just turned up and missed the slaughter. JF continued to occupy the crease and was joined Musa (aka The Moose). He had arrived on a free transfer and a bus from High Wycomb,e he was keen to show what he could do. It didn't take him long and soon was hitting the ball everywhere, including a huge 6. His shots made Nouman look like a pussycat (no offence maestro). Jamie remember him, was still there, nudging, nurdling and accumulating. Before you knew it, Moose retired and eventually so did Skipper Franks. Two different innings but both vital. We were 110 for 2 !!!!

Wardy came in and hit his 1st ball for four, Charlie swung and missed at a few and Freddie "cravat" Foster did his best to get out 1st ball. In the end we were a remarkable 137 for 5 off 20 overs, with 3 batsman retiring over 30.

Job half done

JF and Tor opened the bowling, good, straight, fast bowling. Tor was slightly hampered by wearing a pair of espadrilles, he was slipping all over the show and did really well to slide in from a few paces. He then hurt his leg but carried on like a trooper, a great debut. We found it hard to take wickets until Nouman came on and got rid of their openers. A great catch from Milo followed by an unbelievable catch by Wardy. They had a few good hitters but Wardy then came on and got 2 further wickets, great catches by Tom "the cat" Mack behind the stumps. One was a little nick but Tom caught their captain after he hit one 50 yards into the dark Chesham sky, it came down with the proverbial snow on it but Tom gloved it safely. Jamie Woodley and Milo then combined to run out their danger batter, it was looking good.

Now I love commitment, you all know that, but FF took this to a new level. He was fielding at cover, a gazelle of a man. The ball was whacked his way, off set the batsman. FF was not happy to stop the ball with hand, boot or body...oh no, he stumbled and stopped a certain boundary with his left eyebrow ! There was claret everywhere, chaos ruled, everyone was concerned that the FF was concussed, Milo wondered did the run go against his figures. FF went off to a heroes send off, the game continued.

By the 18 over 18 runs were needed 3 wickets left. JF came back and got 2 in one over, then their number 10 smashed 2 boundaries. It boiled down to both sides being on 137 and there was 1 ball left. Talk about a nail biter, I had done my fingers and was now onto the little pinkies. Jamie bowled a straight ball, 1 run needed for defeat, the batsman aimed a smash, Wycombe began to celebrate, sorry Wycombe.....BOWLED HIM !!

Scores tied. However I now learn it was not a tie, looking at League Rules. According to Rule 7b, subsection, paragraph 4, line 2, word 9....WE WON !!

This is because......We lost less wickets, we are nicer and more handsome than them.

A great match...Tor was MOM on debut...(spikes please mate)

Thanks for great parental support....oh and Wendy turned up !