Seconds Creche At Thrumpton

Leggy reports from the windy city of Thrumpton.........

The Seconds travelled to the scene of one of our more cherished recent memories. They still talk fondly in these parts of Pete Hardy’s backward somersault into the adjoining field. Fortunately this year the gale force wind meant you were more likely to hit THE WALL of the pavilion.

Captain Ted (with 10 working toes, but not for long) was promoted to the Firsts leaving babysitting duties to AC. It looked a good toss to lose when we had the opposition 14-2 with Ben Healey bowling the opener in his first over, followed by Cowlard also snagging one. But the strong sideways wind was proving difficult to bowl in, especially for the youth policy. The remaining opener, Kamran Rashid, and various middle order chums picked off the numerous bad balls and made particular use of the very short pavilion side boundary.

The bowlers, led by AC’s in-swingers (3-38) and The Boss’s mixture of military medium and off-breaks stuck gamely to their task. On his way to 92, Rashid, rode his luck with two drops courtesy of See-Soar and Dunc before losing his middle stump to Sam Nice, who finished with 3 wickets.

The home side closed with 190-9 off their 40 overs and we gained some valuable bowling experience for the youth quartet of Sam, Ben, Billy Harrison and Josh Stolworthy.

The tea was one of the better efforts found on our travels, with a dish of buttered new potatoes an unusual sighting.

Our shortness of batting, no pun intended Ernie, plus the wind dropping several notches of ‘The Beaufort Scale’ made us very reliant on our four recognised batsmen. Ernie and Dunc (not one of the aforementioned) got us off to a brisk start before Ernie played one of his more forgettable hoicks.

Dunc and his middle-less firewood candidate soon followed leaving a lot on the shoulders of Phil Dearden and AC. They saw off the opening pair and began to milk a few boundaries off the change bowlers, including a six for Phil amongst his top score of 36. They got us within sight of the hundred mark when the skipper skied a leading edge which was well held by the Thrumpton youth policy. This lead to a steady procession as their main man, Rashad, went through our tail like a dose of salts, finishing with 6-17.

Though a final score of 95 all out was disappointing there was at least some vital experience gained for our younger players.