The Frindsbury players arrived first, to find a pitch that appeared to have died and gone to bowlers’ heaven.
Thankfully Cobham had forgotten (or had not been told) that we were supposed to be starting at 1 o’clock instead of 2, so John Tadman and Ray Burt had enough time to locate some white paint and mark out the creases at either end before the opposition arrived.
Cobham won the toss, and invited Frindsbury to attempt to bat first.
Sam Collis compiled a solid 13 before departing in the 18th over, and Raj Bassi also struck 13 in the face of some accurate bowling from Cobham – especially Clear (8-4-6-1) and skipper Marshall (5-3-4-0).
Debutant Steve Marshall knocked it around nicely for a while, putting on 29 with Laurence Claughton (who top-scored with 24) in an entertaining partnership that included some superb running between the wickets.
The home side struggled to compile a paltry 89, with Kidd (8-1-27-5) making full use of the helpful conditions for bowling.
Matt Palmer and Ray Burt were both bowled by balls that started out as wides, and Sunny Singh was undone by one that appeared to tunnel underground and emerge behind his bat.
At tea, the feeling was that if we took a couple of early wickets we could at least make things difficult for Cobham despite the low total.
Laurence Claughton opened the bowling in some style.
Two LBWs, Sam Collis’s fourth catch in two games and a brilliant, unplayable clean-bowled accounted for most of the top order.
“Lanks” was simply awesome as he bowled with pace and accuracy in a blistering spell.
Opening partner Raj Bassi (6-1-20-2) was swinging the ball miles and causing problems of his own at the other end, producing a number of unplayable deliveries including an absolute pearler to remove the unfortunate Murray. A buoyant Frindsbury amazingly reduced the visitors to 34-6 before an enforced bowling change. Unfortunately regulations on the number of overs a colt can bowl in any one spell meant that the 16-year old Claughton had to be replaced while in full swing.
This came just at the right time for Cobham, and the wrong time for Frindsbury, and a 7th wicket partnership ensued between Summers and ‘keeper Mochrie to take the visitors to within 25 of victory.
Frindsbury needed something special, and a change of ends for leading wicket-taker Ray Burt brought about the desired result.
The home side were soon very much back in the game as Burt removed Summers courtesy of a fine catch behind the stumps.
This fired Frindsbury up, and the fielders began once again chasing everything down and giving nothing away.
Everyone contributed, especially colts Dan Tadman and Sam Collis who threw themselves at every ball that came their way, and John Tadman who must have run miles to prevent a succession of singles at square leg.
When Burt took his second wicket Frindsbury were left needing another two, and Cobham were still a dozen short of the required total.
The return of Claughton couldn’t come soon enough, and when he did come back into the attack he completed his five-fer virtually straight away by bowling Mochrie with an absolute ripper.
He came agonisingly close to making it six, when, with Frindsbury just one wicket away from victory Clear drove the ball low and hard to mid-off.
It was a difficult chance, so it would be unfair at this juncture to point the finger of blame at the fielder in question.
Keith shall therefore remain nameless.
The last Cobham pair resisted any further inroads from Claughton, who finished with well-deserved figures of 8-4-10-5.
And so it was down to Ray Burt to bowl what would surely be the final over.
Frindsbury still needed one wicket, and Cobham needed 5 runs.
After three balls they were within 3 of the target.
Clear then struck the fourth ball past Bassett’s despairing dive to take the visitors to victory by the smallest of margins.
Despite the low scores, this turned out to be an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable match played in fine spirit.
Thanks to Kath Tadman and the Tyrant Queen (only joking, dear!) for an excellent tea.
Thanks also to Maria for helping out, and especially to Anita Blown for her sterling work behind the bar and for helping with scoring.
