Promotion Hopes Washed Away

The Firsts welcomed back Ted for the visit to Holme Pierpoint against Nottingham. Rocket won the toss and fielded and let Bluey Dessaur keep hold of the iron gloves. The Duke twins opened up but were food and drink to the home batsmen. On first change, Golden Graham was soon on the attack with a Shakeel Rana-esque dispute with one of the openers.

Laddy kept his concentration to hold a sharp chance off Renders. The blazing sun saw Renders don the KCC cap to give a very passable impression of Krusty the Clown. Sadly catching elsewhere was from the Billy Smart school with drops from Meeky, Postie and Ted. Worse was to follow as Meeky tripped over in the deep. Rocket immediately diagnosed a broken ankle and dialled 999 for a meat wagon. However news that Councillor Harris was keeping his hand in saving lives soon had Meeky jumping to his feet downgrading the severity to ligament damage.

Some other stuff happened until the home side reached 220-5 at the break. Tea was marked as B+, highlights being coronation chicken sarnies and the final whistle in Cardiff.

In reply, Iggy set off like a man possessed. Meek Bookmakers had been overrun with punters wanting plenty of the 7/2 on offer for Golden to make a century. Sadly the money remained in the satchel as Ian was out for 15. Ladd and Bradley saw off the openers. Spin was introduced and DJ Sammy reminded Ladster that "remember last week this guy cut it away". This drew the caustic response from Laddy that "no I don't actually because you ran me out before he came on". Sam soon had the traditionlists tutting when bowled playing a reverse sweep.

No surprise when Laddy was next out for 36, the usual 20%, but high joy when his two sixes were revealed as enough to put him level with Bobby for maximums. Tinno Best barely troubled the scorers but Jean Claude Dessaur batted fluently again but couldn't turn 20 into 50.

Worse was to follow as a Baker top edge to mid wicket fortunately dropped into no-man's land, but while Bobby had run a lap and a half, Krusty was still leaning on his bat unmoved. Rob was run out stranded.

Meeky manfully batted on one leg down the order but we were beyond hope by then, falling 40 odd short.

A strong season ran out of steam in the last two matches to leave us a creditable third in the table.

Postscript. A splendid turnout for the after match night out round Bridgford. MOM award given to Bo Duke for having the cheek to point out that the twins had scored more runs than Golden during August.

MOM: Bo Duke
MOM in Running: Nelly 4, Golden 3, Meeky 2, Rendu 2, Laddy 1, Tinno Best 1, L.Duke 1, B.Duke 1