Report by Cam Petrie:
For the second week in a row we have had a "so near yet so far" result - this time coming within 4 runs of a win. Winning the toss, ARM were put in to bat, and their openers (including one "John XL") blocked and belted their way through the opening spells of Joe White (3 overs, 0/28) and Naveen Chouksey (3 overs, 0/22), and continued to attack first change Pete Ames (2 overs, 0/22) before they both retired. Unfortunately our good balls were interspersed with "hit me" long hops that were punished very effectively, so we weren't able to put a lid on the scoring until Mike Foulkes (3 overs, 2/14) brought us a dramatic change in fortune, applying the breaks and taking two wickets with his neat in-swingers. Richie Young (2 overs, 0/14) continued the pressure with his first over, but got some tap in his second as the ARM captain went on the charge, and Julius Rix (1 over, 0/14) was given the muggins job of being asked to bowl one over. A great team run out and the timely retirement of the set batsman meant we were able to exert some pressure at the end and limit ARM to 118/3, leaving us with a close to a run-a-ball chase in the dimming light.
Openers Cam Petrie (1 off 6 balls) and Dave Williams (17 off 18 balls) got the scoreboard ticking, but Cam's mow across the line of a straight one in the first over didn't help our cause. Tom Serby (4 off 11 balls) tried to chip off the early season rust while Dave made excellent use of the shorter square boundary (which he had drawn our attention to in his report from last week) before they were both dismissed in short order. Seb Hammersley (25* off 19 balls), Jelly Astill (13 off 12 balls) and Julius Rix (25* off 17 balls) got us powering on in the middle overs with a nice clutch of boundaries and singles, but Seb's retirement and Jelly's dismissal induced a mini slow down.
It looked as though we wouldn't make the target before until ARM brought on a trepidatious left armer who started out looking petrified, and ended up completely demoralised, mixing up balls that didn't land on the strip with an above the waist full-toss and several juicy half-volleys that were crunched to the boundary. This 19-run twelfth over dragged us back into the game, but it also saw Jules's retirement. Richie (3 off 6 balls), Joe (7 off 10 balls) and Pete (1 off 4 balls) all attacked valiantly, but we had a bit too much to do, and the wiley Sumit (who seems to play for everyone!??!) and the returning naggingly accurate opening bowler combined to reduce the scoring rate and take wickets, leaving us marooned four runs short. Frustratingly close in the end.
