KATIE'S ACES RECORD THUMPING WIN

Our 3rd XI finally got their first win under their belt on Sunday with a massive 9 wicket triumph against a youthful Edgworth outfit. Katie's trops impressed both in the field and with the bat and recorded a highly impressive victory on a dull day at the Meadows.

Having taken an early wicket, courtesy of Sam Collins' smart slip catch off the skipper, Edgworth dug in in the face of some accurate bowling from Katie and young Jack Schofield, whose five overs yielded just eight runs. Awais fashioned a run out and from then on the innings was kept in tight check. The only batter to get going was Ormrod who played fluently for 46, but his was very much a lone hand. Awais recorded the very impressive figures of 3-6 from nine overs, while Katie once again took three, ending with 3-17. A total of 97 looked plenty short on another reasonable wicket.

The Totts reply had reached 19 before the returning Sam Collins was bowled, but then it was the Flaherty and Kay show, with Donny and Dom (in da bungalow?) putting together a rapid partnership of 80 to take us to a great vistory in just 19 overs. Donny brought up his half century near the end to cap what was an assured performance. A top day's work all round, and well done to the team after several weeks of struggles.

The firsts suffered their first defeat of the season, going down by 90 runs to a strong Darcy Lever outfit. In a top of the table meeting, Totts restricted the home side to 170, with Niko the pick of the bowlers taking 4-24. At 120-3 with ten overs to go, a much higher total was on the cards, so this was a decent effort. Walsh-Hill top scored for Darcy, making a half century.

Darcy's opening attack was extremely frugal. Sadiq and Gavin kept Totts to just 20 from the opening 15 overs, with Gavin ending up with a very miserly 1-15 from 13 overs; Sadiq was more penetrative, ripping through the middle order on his way to 5-34. Although several Totts players made starts, the innings top score was just 17 as the previously undefeated 1sts were rolled over for 80.

Down at the Meadows on a particularly airless afternoon, Totts lost the toss and took to the field against Thornham. Marshy was his usual very economical self, while Bradders was also hitting a decent line. The innings was kept pretty tight for the first 20 overs, but then Marshy pulled his hamstring (of which more later) and Bradders started to run out of steam. Number three Hughes started to open up and raced to 49 - at which point he was very neatly talked out by Bret, who got right into his head and forced him to lob the ball back at the Doc who was now operating from the top end.

The batsmen began to take charge in the middle overs, despite best efforts in the field, and with another couple of catches going down at crucial times, it was hard to wrest back control. Doc and Bradders did manage to keep things calm at the death, but a score of 188 was perhaps 40 more than it should have been. Credit to Pervaiz and Ahmed who swung well but those drops again looked to have cost a few runs. Doc ended with 3-40, while Marshy's 11 pre-injury overs went for just 18.

The Totts reply got off to a reasonable start, despite a very uncharacteristic change to the wicket. Having enjoyed lovely pace and bounce over the first month of the season, the batting surface was getting quite "sticky". It's unusual to see both Bret and Doc struggling to time the ball, though Bret did manage to get going with seven boundaries in a brief flurry. Once both departed in quick succession, the middle order imploded, and 49-1 became 92-9 in quick time. Kev did manage to show some fight and hit three lovely sixes on his way to a creditable 37. Despite a brief rain break, there was no way we were going to hold out, and a slightly controversial last wicket (bowled? hit wicket? neither of the above?) ended the innings at 108.

A poor day at the office on Saturday, despite the occasional shining moment, and with a big double header weekend coming up, it's time for players to hopefully hit some form and get back to winning ways.

Thanks as always to those who helped, supported, worked on the ground and bar and all the other tasks, and there's just time to recount a quite marvellous conversation with Bradders, who was explaining Marshy's injury.

Bradders: "He's done his Jackie Chans"
Doc: "His what?"
Bradders: "His Jackie Chans. You know, Chans?"
Watty: "What are you talking about?"
Bradders: "Rhyming slang. His Jackie Chans. Hams?"
Doc: "But that doesn't rhyme"
Bradders: "Hammies? Er, what rhymes with hamstring?"
Watty: "Literally anything ending in -ing"
Bradders: "Oh. Isn't it his Jackies? I'm sure it is"
Everyone: "No!"
Bradders: "Right. Well he's done his hams."
Cue general hysteria.

Onwards and upwards!

To view scorecards from all our games, view the TSJ fixtures and results on CricHQ or check out our fixtures page.