Sibton Park Cricket Club

A good win and sixteen points from a perfectly judged run chase. From the results in so far it looks as if we have made up some of the lost ground because incomplete and abandoned games. There was a violent storm about an hour before the start, and unfortunately there was a gap left in the covers so that the wicket was dry apart from a puddle just short of a length. The umpires decided to shorten the game to 45 overs while it was mopped up, and in the end it made no difference to the game.
They sent in an agricultural pinch hitter, who did his job well, smashing anything full to give them a good start. But Feisty and Muz adjusted their length accordingly and he dried up, eventually skying George straight up in the air, where a lack of communication led to George and Cymbals colliding as they attempted to take the catch, but Cymbals clung on due to his greater physical presence. George bowled quite well and stifled the run rate in the middle of the innings, but still dropped short occasionally. Tidy bowled as always, on a nagging length and difficult to get away, but he got a bit of tap when the batsmen started to use their feet at the end. In general, it was a fairly shoddy fielding display, with some dropped catches and singles conceded where they shouldn’t have been. We had about twenty minutes’ catching practice beforehand but in retrospect we should have done some close range ones instead of Simon belting it up in the air as hard as he could. The final total was bigger than it looked because of the slow outfield, but smaller than it looked because of the excellent wicket, so it was about what it looked, if you see what I mean.
Once again the top three gave us a platform for later acceleration. The opening pair looked untroubled apart from having to run several twos and threes. Stan scored his usual fifty and when he was out we were in a good position. A few maidens meant that we needed seven an over off the last fifteen, but because we had so many wickets in hand, we were still favourites. Stretch started turning dots into ones with some good running, and opened up later, playing some quality shots. Simon came in and upped the scoring rate, playing some big shots when they were needed, then running the ball around when the field dispersed. Despite being completely knackered he made sure he saw it through to the end, hitting the winning runs in the final over.
Unfortunately the Purcells are on holiday next week, so someone else will have to do the job that they have been doing. We’ve got six games left, five of which are against teams in the bottom six, and one of which is against the other promoted side. I think we can win all six.