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Match Report - Earls Colne & Bures vs. Little Bardfield 18/05/08 Earls Colne & Bures 180 for 8 (Himesh Patel 48) (45 Overs) Little Bardfield 182 for 6 Little Bardfield won by 4 wickets Defeat for Earls Colne and Bures in what might have been an evenly contested game, barring one man’s performance with the bat and ball for the home side which made the difference. Captain Smith lost the toss and had his side put into bat on what looked like a difficult wicket; flat enough, but softened by the rain and with the curious and virtiginous Bardfield diagonal slope. Sophisticated Sat. Nav. technology was no match for Messrs. J. Bocking, P. Frances and J. Durkin who got lost which meant the batting order had to be changed (yes guys, you can enter the postcode, but it's best if it's the right postcode!). Smiffy was not best pleased that his carefully constructed order was thrown disarray, but with that Hamish (our Scottish international) and Henry Pilgrim went out to bat. Despite a classy pair
of off drives, Henners fell early to a low one but James and Hamish put
the home side to the sword with some nice shots from James and some
truly Patelesq batting from Hamish, and with the score on 100 for 1 off
24 overs we were sitting pretty. Unfortunately James then gave the
bowler an easy caught and bowled, and then Hamish seemingly knowing he
was near 50 and wanting the glory of a six over cow corner to seal it,
managed to be stumped by about half a pitch. E C & B slipped from a
seemingly comfortable position to 127 for 4, and then 135 for 7 as Phil
Frances, Simon Brennan and a decrepit old Mr. Slow were back in the
hutch. Fortunately, some lusty un-cultured hitting from Captain Smith
and some dashing stroke play from Webb (square cut for 6 a particular
highlight, and especially good as he had by his own admission ‘drunk a
barrel full of Stella the night before’), E C & B ended up on 180
for 8 after their 45 overs. Not a bad effort, but perhaps 20 or 30 runs
short.
Bardfield then begun their reply, after getting off to a good start with Durkin and Smith picking up a wicket each, the Bardfield number 3 started opening up and launching into some neat off side play which put us onto the back foot. Bardfield at 50-odd for 2 were looking comfortable, Hamish had other ideas and took a couple of wickets in a good spell. Webb at the other hand was bowling a couple of pearlers and then a couple of wide ones, but also took a couple. As Bardfield were getting nearer their target, Captain Smith’s options were becoming limited, so old Mr. Slow fresh from last week's retirement was given a chance and although a couple of good LBW shouts were had, he could not stop Bardfield reaching their target with 4 overs to go, and 4 wickets in hand. After the game half of the E C & B team retired to the Fox at Finchingfield. A lovely little pub where Mr. Slow proclaimed Brain’s ‘Reverend James’ bitter to be ‘devoid of hops, malt or indeed any other meaningful ingredient other than water’. Webb on the other hand was more worried about where his next pint of San Miguel was coming from (causing further consternation with Si Brennan who had lent his last fiver to pay Webb's match fee, and was now buying a round on his credit card! Could Smiffy win something for once, seeing as he failed to do it on the field? Sadly not. Pool was the option and unfortunately the skipper got trounced .... Nothing changes. We departed into the night and live to fight another day. Next week, next week - you just wait! Team: Joe Smith, Colin Bocking, James Bocking, John ‘Wolfie’ Gibson, Phil Frances, James Durkin, Keiron Webb, Simon Brennan, Henry Pilgrim, Will Clark, Himesh ‘Hamish Macbeth’ Patel,
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