There didn’t seem to be much between the sides in the bowling and fielding department, but an excellent knock of 83 from 82 balls made by the Juniors opener Toby Chasseaud proved to be the difference between the teams. All we can hope for is the form and of course the weather continues for the rest of the forthcoming season.
Justin Roy, the Senior’s captain, called correctly to win the toss, and he elected to bat, with Stu Hopper and Lahri Mohamed opening. Jon Webley the skipper for the Juniors took the brave decision to open with the spin of Kieran Mullens from one end, backed up by the medium pace of the last seasons leading wicket taker James Gleadow. Both bowled well to contain the openers, and it wasn’t until a calamitous run out that the score board really started to tick over with the introduction of Justin Roy and the bowling of a certain Daniel Harris. Justin took a liking to the bowling (and who can blame him) and scored a quick-fire 63 off of just 44 balls.
Spin was proving to be the downfall for the Seniors though with a player going under the name of Owen Davies providing some great flight for such a young lad, a future Junior captain if ever I saw one! (If not more: Ed.)
After the fall of Justin, there were a couple of reasonable knocks of 20+ from Vincent and Lucius, and Giaco would have been a little disappointed that a couple of knicks behind were unable to be taken by Toby on his keeping debut, but the Seniors ended up posting a reasonable score of 215/8.
With the Grand National on the minds of most of the players during the tea break - and there isn’t an easier way to just hand over your hard owned cash to a bookie - it took a while to get the 2nd innings going, but once it did, the Juniors were always up with the run rate.
The opening Juniors pair of Toby and Ritwick proceeded to get amongst Senior bowlers Lucius and Jon Brown from the off. Ritwick was certainly on to anything full or down the leg side, and Toby made short work of anything short to smash it to the midwicket boundary. After the 3rd run out of the day, Ritwick retreated to the pavilion having scored a commendable 19 off of 27 deliveries. Forhad joined Toby at the crease, and began with helping to hold up one end, while the opener went about his business of scoring the runs required with aplomb.
In only his 7th game of senior cricket (reportedly having learnt the game from watching YouTube clips of the great Test batsmen) Forhad must have started to get a little bored, and scored 16 runs off of the first 3 opening balls of a Shayne Rees over, hitting 2 majestic sixes. He was then duly caught and bowled trying to knock the 4th ball back over the bowlers head.
Hamood (or Haroon?) scored a good 29 off of 27 balls, backing up his credentials as a very good all rounder, before the Juniors' skipper came in to help Toby bring the result home. Jon began by providing the seniors with a couple of catching opportunities, but soon got into his groove, scoring just enough runs (34 from 24) to ensure Toby, who carried his bat, was unable to make the first pacific ton of the season.
A thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all, and was topped off with the offer of a £1.99 curry at the pub after the game, a complete bargain if they had had more than 1 remaining!
