Lambley To The Slaughter

An amazing away win for the Stiffs on the road at old rivals Lambley that saw more landmarks than an open top bus ride through London.

The day started well as we picked up 2 points before a ball had been bowled: Wilsons’ unusual declaration last week invoked a rare rule whereby the bowling side picks up maximum bonus points however many wickets have fallen. Boosted by this news stand-in skipper Leggy confidently called the coin toss and put faith in our batting unit despite a wet pitch.

Drurs and Ernie were out of the blocks only a fraction slower than Usain Bolt racing to 30 in the first 5 overs. Ern’ was then out just failing to clear extra cover. Dougie took time to adjust to the slow pitch taking 10 balls to get off the mark, but a glorious cover drive saw him into his stride as he raced to 50 off 43 balls. Amazingly this was his first half century for the club.

Then another landmark as Drurs reached his 50 for the first time before the drinks break, only to be told by Leggy to speed up the scoring rate! Doped up on orange barley Glassback whacked 5 boundaries in 8 balls to wipe the smile of Leggy’s face before being caught for 71 to end a partnership of 113.

It was tin hats in the vicarage as Dave G strode to the wicket. Over the next 10 overs we went through 8 spare balls as DG and DB peppered the leg side boundary with some quite awesome hitting. Doug was finally out for a sparkling 66 off 51 balls including 5 sixes.

Fraser was next at the crease to continue the onslaught and another 50 partnership came up in double quick time. Dave finally went for one big hit too many to be caught for a magic 59, with 54 coming from boundaries! At 245-4 we were just about on top!

With 4 run outs to his name this season, Beakey was overjoyed to be almost lapped by Fraser when getting off the mark! Butch wisely decided that boundaries would prevent quick singles and played a pair of glorious straight drives to knock in his new bat. Fraser weighed in with a massive slog sweep for 6 as the pair put on another 50 partnership in 7 overs, before Fraser was undone by a yorker for 43.

Strongy had gone through three Ikea pencils in the scorer's chair as Barrie brought up the 300. A flurry of late boundaries took us to 323-5 at the break, Beakey and Baz unbeaten on 33 and 14. A quite awesome display of batting to register the highest 2nd Team score in KCC history.

Tea was better than usual with coronation chicken cobs and club biscuits the highlight.

With so many runs on the board Leggy was able to set an umbrella field, even to his own bowling. However Boss Hogg really needed four leg slips as struggled with his line. Despite having to use the 8th ball of the game, Strongy found lots of movement, but we just couldn’t find the edge early on. At 30-0 we needed a breakthrough and Charlie finally nipped one back to hit the top of middle stump.

Leggy immediately introduced spin at the other end and the Lambley middle order were like startled rabbits to DG’s flighted filth. Drurs took two catches, Barrie another, and then two clean bowled’s saw Dave to career best figures of 5-20 off 6 overs. Strongy had nipped in with another wicket for great figures of 2-19 off 9 overs.

Fraser took a wicket in 2 maiden overs, and young Chris Soar wrapped things up with a plum LBW. Lambley were all out for 78 in just 21 overs for an overwhelming victory.

22 points on the day keeps us is 2nd place. Something has to give as leaders Caythorpe play 3rd placed Wilsons next week. A win for us against Belton would see us on the brink of promotion.

Happy days!