Buccaneers: 250-8 (35 overs)
West Chiltington & Thakeham: 232-8 (35 overs)
Match result: Draw
Raining in the morning with five Buccs on the team sheet, a cancellation looked the most likely outcome for a Sunday down in Sussex. However, a hurried WhatsApp chat ensued – Presidente (Buccs) to Presidente (West Chilt) – ensuring a group of u16s, eager for a game, joined our team for the day.
The toss was negotiated well by the skipper, with J Marsh yet to arrive, batting first looked to be the best way forward. West Chiltington as they normally do, had some good cricketers in their side, but opted to bowl their batters, and vice versa. Very generous! Eswar and Jimmy got us off to a hot start, preying on anything loose to bring the score to 70/0 off 10.
Jimmy got bowled flashing hard, with Es following soon after leaving the Buccs in a precarious position after the new ball spell. Not to worry, as Rydon came in and steadied the ship with Ringer no. 1 to bring us to the halfway stage. Sutton recorded his most fluent knock of the year – striking at over 100 (for the first time in his career…). He finally put the MRF bat to good use, looking more like the greats of Waugh, Tendulkar, Kohli and Gill who also bear the tire manufacturer’s branding. A few lusty blows for the skipper, and some help from down the order got us to a very respectable 250 off of our 35 overs.
Tea as ever at West Chilts was bountiful, and the pints reasonably priced. A last great bastion of the 5-pound pint left the side well lubricated heading into the field. Tea rating: 8.5/10.
Into the field we went, with the Chilt young guns taking early wickets, with a mix of quality Sunday ‘grenade’ bowling and poor batting leaving the hosts well behind the rate. As is always the case, the senior batters of their side come in down the order and proceeded to dispatch the bowling with more ease. Intent on getting everyone a bowl, the skipper even turned to Eswar for an over. An over that started as off-spin ended as medium pace, with a few full tosses and 6’s thrown in for good measure. It was, if not particularly high quality, amusing for all to watch.
With the oppo needing 50 off the last four overs, the skipper turned back to Rydon to close out the innings. He did so with quality death bowling, hitting his yorker with consistency to leave the oppo short of what would have been a very impressive chase.
Thanks to all who played, and all who put up with my incessant WhatsApp outreach to try and put together a team. What could have been a tricky day, turned into a rather lovely one instead.