On another sunny Saturday (yes, we did have 2 of these in a row!), we travelled over to Aldridge to face their 3rd’s, who were sitting in mid-table. After a run of mixed results, we were looking to finish the season on a high and get ourselves onto a bit of a roll.
However, we were once again struggling for numbers, which saw us travel over with a threadbare 10, but thanks must go out to Joe Gregory and Helen Dicken who stepped in at the last minute to help us out.

I duly lost the toss again, but it proved to be a decent one to lose as Aldridge elected to field. I won’t bore you with the intricate details but notable contributions came from everyone who batted. Mike Brookes and Cain Kirby got us off to a flyer, putting on 75 for the first wicket inside 18 overs. Next in was Jack Phillips, followed by Ian Bagley who both contributed to our healthy looking score. Then last but not least, Lee Bowen and myself came to the crease with about 10 overs to go, and proceeded to smash it to all parts (Lee more so than me I hasten to add!). We ended up on 271 for 4, with the scores as follows:

C Kirby 41, M Brookes 21, J Phillips 50, I Bagley 15, L Bowen 64*, B Woodall 28 and J Elcock 4*.

A fine effort, seeing us hit easily our best score of this stop/start season.

We resumed play after catching the final scores coming in on Soccer Saturday in the clubhouse, with Cain and I opening the bowling. We made sufficient inroads more or less straightaway as we took 4 quick wickets in the first 10 overs to really peg back the Aldridge batsmen. From here on in it was always going to be frustrating as Aldridge looked to gain something from the game by batting for the draw. However, with some persistence in the field and with the ball, we stuck to our task admirably and ended up bowling Aldridge out for approximately 100 in the 49th over, Lee Bowen making a mess of their wicketkeepers stumps giving us the full 25 points.
Contributions with the ball coming from:

Kirby 1 wicket, myself 6 wickets, Bowen 2 wickets and Elcock 1 wicket.

A big well done also to Jack Phillips, who was used as an emergency keeper for the day and didn’t let anybody down, even managing to snaffle two caught behinds to top off a great day for himself and the team.

I was immensely proud of our efforts and I sincerely hope this will give the lads that extra bit of confidence as they look to finish this season on a high.

WSW.