We arrived at Boston Manor on an unexpectedly sunny day… The opposition arrived and some were drinking Stella Artois, which I took as a good omen.

Steve Britto was captain and we were fielding a strong line up with a number of all-rounders and Pat behind the stumps. We won the toss and decided to bat having previously decided to play a timed game. Dyll strongly advised everyone who was umpiring to be vigilant as it was felt that as a club we've been far too willing to raise the finger when it comes to LBW decisions. So Pat and Dyll opened the batting and Dyll eeked out 5 and was just getting his eye in when Kev gave him out LBW! To be honest from where I was standing at square leg it looked plum. Then to make matters worse, two overs later I gave Rich Wyllie out LBW (in retrospect this was a diabolical decision, Rich was way too far down the track) and I don’t know what came over me, I think its a mistake to let bowlers umpire, sometimes I have to stop myself from appealing... Sorry Foxy!

However following the initial fireworks the Ploughmen dug in with Pat scoring 16, Steve 25 and Lal, who looks in good touch, scoring 33, followed by Matt Ashton blazing a quick 30 at the end. So we wound up with a workable 160. Its just a bit of a shame no-one really pushed on to make a big score, especially considering the bowling attack

After Tea it was the Akademikals turn to bat. I opened at one end, with Rich Wyllie at the other end, a good decision from Steve to open with spin quickly paid dividends with Rich bowling one of the openers. I followed this up by bowling the other opener in the following over. Rich followed this by bowling out the next three batsmen, cleverly using his "arm ball" to devastating effect. This was followed by a run out involving me and Pat after which the oppo were honestly looking like a beaten side. Matt Ashton came on, bowling quickly with excellent line and length and the next two wickets fell relatively quickly, the batsmen wearing an "I told you that was going to happen" look on their faces....

However the last two wickets seemed to take an eternity to fall. Their number three batsman had an impenetrable defence and wound up the highest scorer with 38 not out, but Smash plugged away and eventually found his way through bowling out the remaining two batsmen.

So all in all it was a good day! I guess we could have scored a few more and maybe their tail hung around for too long and we might have even dropped a catch or two, but we came through with some tight bowling and good captaincy from Steve Britto.

Well done everyone!

WB