A classic Sunday encounter

This was a Sunday match in the traditional mould. There was the obligatory cry-off from the 1st team players at 22.11 on Saturday night (it would be unfair to name Borch and Ollie, so I won't, and they had tickets to the rugby, so at least it wasn't football). There was another cry-off at 23.00. Same old, same old.

We took the field with 10 players, with another missing, presumed missing, He never showed, but luckily his replacement was Ferdie Middleton who was a superstar in the field and a revelation with the ball. Unplayable. But I get ahead of myself.

Haddenham won the toss and elected to bat and it was soon clear that they had one very good batsman, the opener Bharath. Bharath slapped Gadsby's selection of long hops and half volleys, on leg stump, off stump and all other stumps all round the park, but mainly to square leg where the lame skipper failed to place a fielder. At the other end Gunning spent five overs going for just six runs. Age before beauty...

Oscar Middleton (remember the name Middleton, it will feature heavily in this report) and Ryan Bullock stemmed the flow. Bharath fell to Bullock, sharply taken by Martin Middleton behind the stumps. (At this point I should mention that when we took the field someone said 'Skip, who is keeping wicket?' and Skip said 'Ah...'. We borrowed kit from the oppo and a reluctant Martin Middleton (remember that name?) took the gloves. From 74 for none the oppo stuttered to 119 for seven with Middleton (Oscar) taking two in an excellent spell of off spin (seven overs, two for 24), a couple for Sunday debutant Siva Devanesan, and a peach from Ferdie Middleton to clean up Pickering who found him unplayable. Haddenham's book read 'Pickering, bowled Middleton F, aged 9'! Tin-legs Mackie revealed a new-found ability to bowl spin (NB Freddie Perkins fielded like he had tin legs, reminiscent of Lootenant Dan from Forest Gump) and bagged a couple. Matt Barnett-Vincent was brought on for his first ever bowl in a match and with his first ball clipped the top of off stump. Stop there, Matt. Retire. His second ball was narrowly dropped and we'll not talk about the rest of his two overs. He peaked early. But what a peak! Haddenham finished with 160, perhaps 10 over par. Martin Middleton finished with five catches, on wicket-keeping debut. Stunning. The Middletons had a hand in eight dismissals. Carol was seen warming up....

The Cubs' response was steady against tight Haddenham bowling with the first 10 overs yielding 17 runs. On a difficult wicket we always found ourselves just behind the rate although Bullock and Devanesan did a classic openers' job in seeing off the opening bowlers. Siva finished on a fine 38 and Charlie Perkins weighed in with a very classy 59. We need to see more of this man. The run rate was mounting steadily, and despite a stylish, almost Gower-esque 16 off 13 balls from Gadsby (what have you been drinking?! Ed.) we fell a few short. C'est la vie. Haddenham were great hosts. The chat was first rate - like us they sledge their own side, not the oppo - and we went to the pub afterwards. What more could you ask for?