There, they were greeted by a team made of twelve year olds and sixty year olds; there was no in-between. A damp wicket made bowling first the team's preference. Unfortunately captain Harry Davies lost the toss for his first time and the plough went in to bat. As mentioned earlier, despite the rail strikes most of the team were in situ and ready to go except the opening bat, Hanzala. Fortunately, with the opposition agitated about the light and overs reduced to 35, a figure appeared across the field ambling towards the pavilion at a light canter.

The opening bat had arrived and joined Harry on the pitch. The opening bowlers had youth and pace on their side. Our opening batsmen rose to the challenge and got through the first bowlers spell. Well, almost. As captain Harry remarked 'this is his last ball', that last ball flew past his bat and onto the stumps sending him back to the pavillion. In came Trent at three for his penultimate Plough appearance. The two bats were now facing some deadly bodyline attack. Clearly, the teenage bowler on the other end had been reading up on Douglas Jardine as he targeted the head, first with bouncers then just launching the ball directly at them. Much to the dismay of the pavillion, he was allowed to finish his spell after the third ball directly to the bat, but did not make a later reappearance. Now came the time for a change of umpire. Much to the dismay of everyone on the pitch, captain Harry unwittingly came out to umpire in a red polo shirt. Much to the delight of everyone on the pitch, caption Harry reasoned the only available course of action was to remove the shirt and umpire topless. With a blue jumper now in place, the bowling attack continued.

Hanzala and Callum both lost their wickets before drinks adding 17 and 10 a piece to the total. Nevertheless, Trent and Yanni took us safely into the break with a solid foundation from which to build. Alas, a change in bowler right after the break proved to bring the breakthrough the opposition needed, taking 4 wickets in his 3 overs. Trent was first to fall on the first ball after drinks. Max came in to replace him and creamed his first ball for four. Unfortunately he also creamed his third ball straight into the hands of a fielder and returned to the pavillion with an impressive strike rate but not a massive total. Yanni was the next to go, bowled. Ean came in and started off exactly as was needed, blocking the first few balls out and getting in. Unfortunately, as with many of our batsman today, he took the opportunity for big swing and was caught.

Things were looking pretty dire for the plough at 83-7 as Niraj took to the crease. Fortunately, the ploughs prayers were answered as he proceeded to put on the top score of the day (after extras) of 21. Talking of extras, the work the tail (Dave, Giordy and Josh) did in intimidating the bowlers into bowling wide and no balls should not go unmentioned. An excellently judged leave by Kersey saw the ball rocket past leg stump and clip the wiki's helmet for five. Nevertheless, the opening bowler returned to bowl Niraj, Giordy and Josh with the same full swing Yorker leaving Dave stranded on a career pb and average octupling 4*. The plough were 129-10.

At tea, nervous strategies were exchanged with the emerging philosophy being restrict runs and take wickets. Not to dismiss the efforts of all the batsmen, but this match report so far has all been preamble for what was perhaps the most exciting innings ever played on pitch two at imber court sports club. The stage was set: 130 runs to bowl Esher CC VI's.

Giordy and Dave opened the bowling. They kept to their line and length and restricted the opposition to under 3 an over. Despite several balls practically grazing the off stump and a few in the air, they couldn't get the breakthrough desperately needed. It was time for a change of tactic. In came Kerrsey to take what everyone assumed would be the greatest wicket of the day. His first ball was loopy, but not loopy enough. Kerrsey knew what had to be done: more loop. As the ball left his hand on the next delivery, those in the outfield already new what was about to happen. The trajectory was perfect, the height (literally - this is not an exaggeration) three times that of it's bowler, the line perfect. The ball landed in the crease and bounced into the bamboozled batsman's pad. LBW. The field erupted as they rushed to crowd their bowler. There was momentary confusion as the celebrating plough searched for a missing teammate, Yanni. He was quickly located, collapsed behind the wicket unable to move from laughter. The game was very much on.

With the pressure firmly built, Calum came on the other end to continue the onslaught. Allegedly injured, his action was seamless and his pace rapid. Two more wickets were inevitable. Including a sublime caught and bowled directly resultant from the pressure built by his bowling. Harry and the T-rex came in to continue the attack. Despite a solid economy and very tight bowling, the wickets needed with such a slim total to defend were not coming.

Something drastic was needed. Something drastic came: Max Wright's bowling. His carefully honed off-spin (rumour has it Max has bowled upwards of 20 deliveries in the nets this year) proved to be the miracle the plough were waiting for. At the end of his first over the batsman was caught on the pads suspiciously close to leg side. Nevertheless, Max managed to intimidate the 12 year old umpire into awarding the LBW, his appeal matched by an equally violent send off. Now follow the most dramatic period of play for the next ten runs since Headingly 2019. The score is 120-4 with 10 runs needed to win. Max steps up to open his second over. The delivery is driven straight back to him; surely this will go for four? Not a chance. The ball flew straight in to Max's outstretched hands for second wicket in as many balls. The realisation that the next ball is a hat trick ball only compounded the celebrations. For some surprising reason the opposition bat had already taken off his pads so a lengthy delay followed giving the team ample time to plan their next move. The obvious tactic won out: play silly. Silly mid-on, silly mid-off, silly-square and silly point were joined by short mid-on and mid-off. As if it were every in doubt, the tactic worked. Although not for a hatrick, Harry took a beautiful catch at short mid-off to add another wicket to the tally. Kerrsey was right: the game was on.

Throughout the day the energy from fine leg had been unparalleled from our resident leggy, but now that energy was matched by everyone on the field. We could feel the comeback, history was about to be made. As Niraj's persistence paid off and another wicket was added to the tally, safley tucked away by a handy Hanzi's hands. This was followed up by a wonderful second spell from Giordy who took yet another caught and bowled, getting his wicket and leaving the opposition with 2 wickets and as many runs needed. Another ball slammed into the pads of the batsman, but was given not out by the umpire. Giordy's calm response suggested to the team that it may have pitched outside off.

However, upon later deliberation at the pub, it was decided that it was in fact in line and we were robbed. Unfortunately, the opposition managed to scrape the extra couple of runs needed. Nevertheless, taking four wickets for ten runs left us feeling like at Old Trafford the moral victors, despite what the Australian members of the team might say. Despite the victory, a brilliant day out was had by all, with numerous individual moments to remember. Niraj's work with the bat gave us a total we could defend and Giordy and Callums bowling rates of around 1 an over cemented it as a defendable score. Special mention, of course, must go to Max who, despite his flintoff-esque approach to practicing bowling (i.e. not) took a wonderful threefur and swung the momentum that so nearly carried us home in the last few overs.

Match report produced by Dave Yates