They braved drizzle, rain and Catford on their voyage to their last minute replacement match with a team, whom they were reliably informed has been found at 4pm the previous day - what a fixtures sec is Leon Parks.

Despite the talk of 60% rain and thunderstorms, they arrived to a beautiful, sunny pitch complete with brutalist pavillion and view of the Dartford bridge. After winning the toss, Britto elected to bat first, so the skip and J Hockings took to the crease.

From the perspective of the onlooking Plough, the pitch looked a breeze, the boundaries a tad long, but the bowling and bounce a wonderful to time and send for runs. And run they did, due to the size of the boundaries every run had to be earned. However, to paint this march and wicket as a beauty to bat on would be a huge disservice to the effort, skill and grit shown by the opening pair in their cementing of a foundation that would prove to be the base for the game, as the onlooking Plough would later find out. Perhaps, Britto and Hockings made it look a little bit to easy and lulled us into a false sense of security.

From the sunny comfort of the boundary rope, the onlooking Plough watched ball after ball be creamed for what must surely have been a boundary, but drop short of the rope. Despite the enormous boundary and long grass, Britto's raw strength and ability shone through as he totted up his (I've actually lost count of how many) fifty this season.

As the 9 Plough on the side sat back and prepared to enjoy a afternoon of wonderful cricket, without so much as raising a bat, disaster struck. Britto was caught out by a ball, which jagged off the very green wicket and, sending Bharat into the fray.

Within almost no balls at all (after all who needs time to get their eye in), Bharat had sent the ball flying over the gargantuan boundary for six and the game was very much on. Hockings gritted his teeth and ploughed through to get his fifty, creaming a ball that finally went over the massive farside boundary. Unfortunately, with the milestone reached, the oppo brought on their devastating spin attack and Hockings was sent back to the pavillion, stumped, with the second half-ton of the day.

Then came a less desirable series of events. The oppo spinners proved perfectly suited for the deck and an all-but-inevitable middle order collapse ensued. Curtis saw off almost an over, but was given out LBW by none other than the skipper-cum-half-centurion Britto. As he marched back to the pavillion, the captain's words of advice from the start of the game rang clear in his ears: be generous with the wides, but to give an LBW it must be plumb. It was indeed plumb. (N.B. I am paraphrasing, but that was the gist, from skips opening speech).

After the wicket of Curtis, the middle order were shaken and the Plough began to struggle. Nieboer, who has looked so good on and off the field this season, was given out early on and Rob Mead followed suit shortly after, but not before adding a few runs to the total. Alas, Niraj was also to follow suit shortly after.

Fortunately, we had Azza and Cash in the locker. As per, Azza knocked it about and got some very quick runs. Cash hit some superb balls, including me shot of the day was a pull for four. Yanni called it in the first pod of the season, but my god is Cash looking good this year.

With the tail tonking it about on the field, Kerr and Yates were nervously onlooking with pads on - neither of who are particularly keen with the bat. Fortunately, Cash and Azza took us home with some fast late runs to give a very defendable total of 187.

After a self-made tea, the highlight of which were Kersey's pork pies and Britto's jug in early doors, the Plough took to the field. News of J Hocking's injured arm greatly peturbed the Plough as the harsh reality of having only one seamer.

Almost poetically the closing bats opened the bowling. Cash-win opened from the Pavillion end with some almost incredibley tight bowling to leave the bats hungry for runs. Then on came Azza for what can only be described as a magnificent spell. The movement, the pitch, the casual way in which Azza returned to the crease after delivering the most devastating ball ever faced by the oppo bat: all of these combined to result in three clean bowleds in two overs. I'm fact, Azza bowled so well that he had to be taken off two overs into his first spell so the rest of the team could have a go (something the team would later live to mildly regret - specifically around the thirty overs mark).

On then came Yates, who, after a rocky opening to the season, bowled with a renewed confidence. The pitch was green, the boundaries long and most importantly removing all pace from the game made large totals hard work. It is at this point the author would like to offer huge thanks and the promise of a crisp pint of larger beer to Prithu next time he sees him for his excellent advice at the closing of last DSG nets - 'I can tell which balls are going to be bad, you're tilting your head'.

After many a puzzled hour spent pondering why he couldn't bowl straight this season, Prithu's observstion proved vital to Yatesy's bowling (thank you!!). In fact, it worked so well that I sent one through center stump and broke it (I then spent a good ten minutes retriving it from "the bonfire" after the game).

With a flurry of wickets, Cash then took his well worked and well deserved wicket, to leave the oppo firmly on the ropes, with under fifty runs and under five wickets left. Unfortunately, at this point, the opposition bat decided to do the unthinkable and not get out. Despite some stellar bowling from Nibbler, Kerrsey, who's voice rang loud in the field throughout the game, and Azza for a second spell, this bat, with black pads adorning his shins, dug in and batted out.

The bowling performance across the team was superb, with wickets across the team and tight bowling from everyone. Special praise (as it was called in my primary school) must go to Niraj Taylor and Will Curtis for their remarkably economic spin bowling. Niraj has, in every game I've seen him bowl (admittedly this is only two, but I feel like that's enough) has been in absolute control and taken two wickets. It is an absolute spectacle to watch. Equally, Curtis with his two spells of one-two overs and going for under 3 (that's not an over - that's 2 in total). He even found the edge of the only oppo bat to score above two. Unfortunately Yates dropped it, but we'll gloss over that and make no further mention of it. In fact, a single catch was not taken all day by either team...

Special mention must also go to the oppo bat who made the Plough plough on for the full 40 overs, being their only bat to score above two, with a stupendous 103*. Let me rempahsise the next highest bat got 2, so thanks to Iqbal for making it a game and making us work hard in the outfield.

With the final overs looming, captain Britto took up the mantle and broke the gargantuan partnership with a straight ball - inspiring leadership. Rob Mead did very well all game to keep on such an unpredictable, angled deck and showed commendable bravery to stand to without a lid. Even taking a very clean catch in the last over from the opposition centurion that would've been out but alas missed the bat.

Overall, it was a great day out and I think the mood of the day is captured by the following quote from the opposition scorebook: bowler number seven wore a pink bucket hat, was chirpy and chucked it. No prizes for guessing whom that is about.

Match report from Dave Yates