4s vs Cove 4s 24.05.25

The 4s arrived at LS with a renewed hope of getting tour first league victory. A number of changes from last week with the likes of Matt and Aidy off on holidays and a few returning faces. Prep started early with Paul conducting an early pitch inspection and Alf and St John on teas nearly burgling the cakes from the 2s.

The skipper lost the toss but we were bowling first anyway, and prepping with a “dynamic” warmup of throwing a ball around. Nick was keen to test out young Corbyn, underarming one straight up. To his horror, the Chairman realised that cricket balls don't make great homing missiles, and instead saw the ball sailing towards his car. A shriek of “oh no” managed to do trick as the ball landed just short and bounced into Nick's car, much to the amusement of his teammates, and as Netty pointed out, one of the two horses, that was literally rolling around with laughter.

Charlie Terry and Merlot opened up, while Charlotte arrived with the frogbox that we'd left behind at King Street. We thought we had the opener very early on thanks to some sharp glovework by Daniel behind the stumps, but he was adjudged to have been in his crease, before he sent the next ball to the boundary. Senior CT found an early breakthrough thanks to a smart catch by the chairman at gully, but Cove got off to a quick start, with a number of balls falling agonisingly close to fielders as we had no luck. The number three took one CT over for 14, including one six which achieved what the Nick Bryant underarm couldn't, by landing on his car.

CT got his revenge next over thanks to an excellent catch by Alfie at mid-off, 47-2, but Cove kept coming. Taller CT (2-33) and Merlot (0-23) were replaced with Smaller CT and Corbyn as we invested in the OGCC Youth Section, but their first two overs conceded a combined 27 runs, though that did include byes where Charlie had both batter and keeper beaten by a pair of jaffers that had turned through the gate.

With Charlotte still setting up the frogbox (she might need another tutorial Stenners), Charlie Thomas found the breakthrough with another ball that went through the gate, then Corbyn found the edge next over which was caught in the slips by St John. I'm sure most of the clubhouse had to hear enough about this catch Saturday evening, but let the record show it was regulation. Bucket hands took another catch off Charlie the following over, high, swirling around and coming down with snow on it, but only in St John's dreams as we all know it was a dolly, 91-5.

Corbyn (1-17) finished his spell and was replaced by James, who initially appeared to have left his radar at 17s training on Friday, with four false starts before his first legal ball, before finding dangerous areas and a significant amount of turn. Our young spin twins applied the squeeze, as Cove crawled to 109-5 at drinks, with Charlotte eventually giving up with the frogbox.

Sober Alf entered the attack after drinks, and started by testing out Daniel's ability down the leg side (to the surprise of nobody, he's quite good). This provoked St John into conversation, causing the batter to pull away and St John to apologise. The batter continued to make a song and dance about it before missing a straight one next ball. Alf and James (0-16) applied the squeeze, and Alf found another breakthrough thanks to an excellent catch from Charlie Thomas at midwicket, credit to H for the field placement.

CT Junior (4-21) came back on up the hill, as he and Alf (3-19) finished things off due to more smart catches by James at second slip, Alfie himself at square leg, and CT senior at midwicket, Cove 140 all out.

After a finely prepared tea from Alf and St John, openers Nick and Henry were sent out to in pursuit of the target. The pair combined their strong defensive techniques with some ruthless putting away of the bad ball, taking 23 from the first two overs.

There were some nerves around whether the weather would conspire against us in pursuit of our first win, which proved too much for CT Jnr. He came crashing through his chair as the Chairman was crashing the ball to the square boundaries, punishing the bowlers whenever they dropped short, bringing up his half century a bit before we reached 99-0 at drinks.

Drinks claimed its second victim of the game as Henry (30) picked out midwicket. Henry tried to calm his anger with a bag of Haribo, but soon ran away from Lily after she pointed out he'd have to share. Meanwhile St John gave catching practice to mid-on, who put down a chance that buckets himself obviously would have taken.

Nick (87*) continued to offer no chances and find the boundary at will, as he and St John (22* off 15) saw us home after 26 overs, giving Netty and Daniel plenty of padrash and ensuring a maximum points win for the 4s.

Huge thanks to Paul for all his pitch prep, fighting weather, faulty equipment and giving up his Saturday morning for an early pitch inspection to get us a game. Big thanks too for his umpiring stint to relieve Alf and CT Snr after their mammoth stints.

Player of the Match: Charlie Thomas - his 4-21 and excellent catch completely changed the momentum of the game.

Muppet of the week: Charlie Thomas, for crimes against furniture.

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