Basement Battle

The Stiffs travelled to Woodborough for a relegation dog-fight, a little fearful, after the heaviest loss in KCC history against Hucknall the week before. Despite the Firsts being called off for rain, we stuck with the side on paper, which saw the return of old hands Ernie, Boom and Drurs, and a rare trip out of NG12 for AC.

Cowlard won a valuable toss and we bowled in a match reduced to 40 overs a side. The veteran Woodborough openers soon showed that batting was going to be a struggle on a pitch made of plasticine, limping to 40 off the first 15 overs. Liam replaced AC and picked up both openers with catches by Ernie and AC, in a spell of 2-35 off his 10 overs. Leggy bowled his 10 overs straight through for just 24 runs.

Our fielding was the usual mixture of good, bad and ridiculous, with Leggy contributing to all three categories. The Boss took a routine catch at extra cover, only for Cowlard to be no-balled. Three balls later saw the exact same chance, only this time Leggy reprised his 'come on down, the Price is Right' hand waving dance, shelling the sitter. The Boss peered through his sunglasses claiming the sun was in his eyes, despite a thick black shower cloud covering most of north Notts. Cowlard was not impressed immediately swapping Leggy with fine leg: "... go down there until you can learn to behave properly!".

The middle order were struggling with orthodox shots, but were much more effective with slogs and smears, peppering the cow corner boundaries. AC's blood boiled further when a clean bowled was ruled out for another no ball, but fortunately a legal delivery hit the stumps next ball, to finish with 1-42 off his 10 overs. Boom (2-52) took a couple of late wickets as Woodborough reached 167-5 at the break off 40 overs, 20-30 more than we'd budgeted for. Paul and Ernie shared the fielding point: Paul for conceding just 4 byes, and Ernie for a horizontal swallow dive of which Tom Daley would have approved.

Tea sadly failed to deliver, arriving late, and lacking any kind of salad. Jumbo scotch eggs were the exception.

In reply the pitch now looked like an end of day par 3 golf tee, littered with divots. This was a grit-your-teeth and play forward day, and Ern and Drurs took a few blows for the team grinding out a 50 partnership. The change bowlers were easier to play and we milked singles to reach 100 in the 25th over. The 29th over sealed the contest, going for 23 as Drurs surprised even himself with two slogs over mid wicket for six into the adjoining ploughed field.

The veteran pair reached 150 for the 2nd time this year, before Ernie was finally caught for a splendid 52. The curse of batting at no.3 struck Dale, who was reaching for Leggy's Savlon to treat a nasty dose of pad rash, and was predictably caught 2nd ball for 0. Ted settled nerves, and Drurs hit the winning runs with a six over square leg, to end in the 90's ..... or so he thought, until a recount found he'd made 104!

A fine win, and a great team effort. 17 points lifts us out of the relegation zone.