Cowley CC V Chalford. Lunch at the Manor makes up for loss in the rain

The visiting team of Chalford agreed to a revised T20 format given the forecast for rain at tea time. And because tea was to be held at the Manor, the both teams promptly got ready. Chalford won the toss and elected to field. Both openers for Cowley tried to press for runs but the outfield was slow and the bowling was accurate. Eric skied a ball to be caught for 9. Toby hit a 6 before he was then bowed for 17. Despite some defensive shots, Cowley then had a mid-order collapse as Greg (4), Stuart (2), Simon (0) and Mike (1) were then either stumped or bowled. It needed the steady hands of Dave (10*) and Will (23*) to rescue the innings as the rain spitted down. Cowley had made 78.

The rain slowly intensified as Chalford got ready to bat. Greg struck in the first over by bowling the opener, however Adrian (with his dodgy achilles) was not having much luck with the ball. It wasn't until the 5th over that Louis took his first wicket of the season when the batsman tried to play off his legs only for Eric to take the catch next to the square leg umpire. This made it 2/25. Unfortunately from then on, Chalford's 3rd and 4th batsman took a liking for the bowling and saw their team to the end with 5 overs to spare.

Just as well as we were already 5 minutes late for tea!! By now the rain was already pouring down as both teams packed up, drove into the Manor carpark and self-consciously filed into the garden room in our not-so-white attire. However, this was soon forgotten as the Manor treated us to a wonderful tea to mark what ultimately was a very important day for Cowley CC*.

*The Manor has granted Cowley CC another 5 years at the ground. Huzzah!

Eric