The game tried its hardest not to happen - but in the end the Cricket gods came through (for better or for worse…)

After a midweek cancellation from Battersea Irons, the Plough matchmaking experts dug deep and found a fine replacement to host the 3rd XI for a spot of Saturday cricket. The Saturday morning came and like all good Plough the lads were ready for action, however, the weather was threatening to throw a spanner in the works - boom! Beddington Park CC confirmed the pitch was in good spirits and ready for action.

All the Plough assembled Avengers-esque at the picturesque Beddington Park for a day of “hopefully” dry cricket. Pitch inspected once again (and a fine wicket she was) skipper AJ won the toss - well kinda… Beddington wanted to Bat first and Plough bowl, and just like that we “won” the toss! Due to the impending rain forecast for 5pm, both teams agreed to 30 overs each.

The day couldn’t have started much better from a Plough perspective with unpredictable pace bowler Oli Lonsdale bowling out their opener with only 2 runs to his name. We didn’t slow down there and Ritik dazzled with some fast swing bowling, claiming his first wicket for the Plough - Congrats Ritik! Another quick wicket for Oli Lonsdale and we were in the driving seat.

However, after a handful of “dangerous” no-balls from Oli the umpire politely asked for him to retire from bowling the rest of the game - to which we agreed. From there the Beddington Park batters started to gain momentum, bedding in (no pun intended) to see out some overs and rack up the runs. Viki eventually got the breakthrough bowling out their anchor who'd amassed 33 runs. Some more overs passed and Harry Davies’ tricky spin bowling encouraged a wild swing, to which Viki plucked out of the air with grace.

Unfortunately for the Plough there were 2 or 3 dropped catches at crucial moments which would have limited Beddington Park’s total - which ended up being 129.

After a quick turnaround (teas postponed to post-match due to weather concerns) skip AJ and resident Australian Yanni opened the batting. It was a strong start from the pair, scoring runs where possible against Beddington Park’s awkward medium-pace bowling. Yanni was the first of the Plough to fall after a big swing, edge and straight-forward catch from their keeps. Debutant Harry Bray came to the crease to try and spark a long partnership with skipper AJ but after a nick off the glove and some deliberation, skip was out with 15 runs to his name.

Jon and Rehan quickly came and went in quick succession scoring 0 runs, to which Harry Davies came in to try and steady the ship. A double H partnership was in full flow however after some tricky leg spin from Beddington Park’s young boy Harry Bray was dismissed for LBW. Not much else seemed to stick for the Plough’s batting lineup resulting in wicket after wicket and a disappointing afternoon at the crease for the lads. All out for 42… a performance that no Plough would be proud of.