Cowley CC v Ullenwood CC. Tuesday 13th July 2021

The 9 of Cowley were welcomed to the lovely bowl shaped Ullenwood ground on a pleasant July evening.
Wining the toss, Jonny elected to have a bat on a dry looking wicket.
Looks can be deceiving - and the wicket turned out to be a bit of a minefield.
Nick and Alex started brightly, however Alex was bowled in the third over for 9 (including 2 boundary fours). 13 for 1 became 16 for 2 in the next over as Jonny top edged a skier to the keeper for 2. Charlie was run out thanks to an excellent direct hit in the next over and were floundering at 17 for 3. Each over was bring a wicket as Cowley continued to collapse, Nick being caught at short third man for 4 in the 6th over followed by Luke being bowled by a grubber for 1 in the 7th. 18 for 5 after 7 overs and panic in the ranks. Phil and David W entered the fray and held firm for a few overs before David was bowled by the Ullenwood youth section for 3. 27 for 6 soon became 27 for 7 as Phil was caught and bowled for 4. Conor joined Adrian and got off the mark with a single but Adrian couldn't keep out his first ball which snuck past the bat to clip the off stump. 28 for 8 - all out, and possibly a record for our midweek team to compete with the record set by the Sunday team earlier in the season.
We drew a line under the scorebook and Ullenwood, wanting some more practice, invited us to continue batting. 4 more wickets fell as we muddled our way up to 59 from 20 overs.

Ullenwood were patient in the face of tight bowling from our openers Luke (3-0-3-0) and Alex (3-1-2-0). As Ullenwood upped the tempo our first change bowlers Charlie (2-0-11-2) and Nick (2-0-14-1) were at least able to take a few scalps (a good catch by a guest fielder from Nick's bowling and a clean bowled and drag-on from Charlie) before Ullenwood crossed the line after 10 overs.
They continued to bat (and retired several batters) and we made sure everyone had a bowl. They completed 20 overs with 75 on the board with no more loss of wickets.

We retired to the bar sheepishly, many of us contemplating a permanant cricketing retirement... We had been unable to give Ullenwood a game, albeit on what was undoubtably a tricky batting wicket. At least the sun shone, everyone got some much needed practice in and our hosts were very gracious in victory.