Sapwell Sets Up Big Win For The Seconds

Scorecard

Another week, another lost toss meant the prospect of having to bat in the light drizzle on a terrible pitch against promotion rivals HABCC. At least the lads were up for it! Well not quite with Yorkey only bringing one spike to the game, Stimmo at death's door, me having only one functional hand and Wildo again missing presumed kidnapped.

Only 2 men could save us from the inevitable CBC to 85 all out and thankfully, they were more up for it than anyone else in the team. Having forgotten to get her a Birthday present, Gunnar was keen to give Sarah a more thoughtful DIY gift; a decent 30 odd and a solid 63 run opening partnership. She can't say he doesn't spoil her!

Sappy, looking back to his best, and Gunnar, dependable as always, started to set up the innings nicely seeing off a difficult opening spell where the invariable bounce caused both of them problems. Still high from his innings the previous week, it took Sappy 6 overs to realise he was missing his box and thigh pad but thankfully, no damage had been done to either our innings or his body.

Though we were only going at 3 an over, both looked comfortable and took advantage of some poor fielding and the challenging outfield which made picking the ball up cleaning nearly impossible. Gunnar eventually fell for a well made 33 and though he was disappointed to perish, he had done a great job to set up the innings and had taken the pressure off the rest of the team.

No one felt that lifting of pressure more than Sprulesy though as he decided today should be the day to start running hard between the wickets. With rumours rife about a lot of money being chucked on a run out, Sprulesy prodded the ball to Silly Mid Off and then decided to race him to the other end. He lost. 78-2.

Sappy was starting to hit his stride and thugged a six over midwicket as Manno flailed his way to 9 before he too was bowled. With the overs starting to decrease rapidly, Stimmo came and went quickly after a lovely sweep and an even more beautiful carve over point. Looking like the innings could fizzle out, Waring came to the crease with 7.4 overs to go and us 147-5.

Sappy having just passed 50 for the second week in a row started to open his arms up and despachito anything outside off to the cover fence. At the other end, Waring abandoned his thieving antics which had let him down in the previous game and decided to join the thuggers. With everyone willing it over the rope, he lifted a six down the ground and then crunched a few 4's to get us towards 180. Sappy though continued to look in great form as he took advantage down the ground and we were suddenly up to 200 when he was finally caught for a brilliant 87. Waring continued to biff and we made it to 216, a really decent total on a difficult pitch.

Still though, there was work to be done with the ball and thankfully, Nozza was back to his best helped by the sticky wicket. In the first over, he had their opener bowled and after a few looseners from myself, I bowled one of my best balls in years and had their skipper bowled nipping back down the hill and pegging back off stump a la Glenn McGrath. Follow this link to see Glenn recreate my wicket in 2005: https://youtu.be/G-YHaPJBqzw?t=1m47s

After that, the gate was opened and as Nozza's maidens continued to add up, the level of chat-induced pressure increased on the Havering batsmen as another was caught behind off Noz and then Sappy took an absolute stonker off me, flying to his right at gully. As I debated chucking him the ball, we all wondered whether he could do any wrong? Yes he could was the answer to that. As their batsman flailed, he decided 2 hands would be too easy for a superstar like him and so completely missed the ball with his one handed 'effort'. He then dropped another one lower down and looked around nervously wondering if these drops had lost him his hero status amongst his peers.

After getting a little bit of a biffing, I retired to Fine Leg and Wildo took over. Nozza had one more pouched gratefully by Ian at square leg and he strolled off boasting the incredible figures of 10-8-8-3 leaving Charlie to get in on the act.

The HABCC batsmen looked to counter attack but Charlie and Wildo stuck to their guns and soon Chaz had his first, caught again by Ian who was fast becoming our safest pair of hands though that's not hard these days. Chaz could have had a second but like wasps at a picnic, the ball continued to follow Sprulesy and like me last season, the yips were all too much as he shelled another dolly and we all awkwardly pretended we couldn't hear his teary sniffs as he went off to hide in the outfield.

At the other end, Wildo and the batsman were locked in a desperate game of cat and mouse as Wildo served up a few tempters and the batsman swung and missed 4 times in a row. In some of the most Village cricket I've ever seen, Wildo tossed up a moonball so slow it almost didn't make it to the other end. Put off by Stimmo's giggles, the batsman tried for 5th time lucky and once again, missed the ball by some distance as it floated down like a bubble and just about knocked the bails off. It was a laugh of cry moment and I think most laughed though I did cry a little at the embarrassment of it all.

With them 80-7, the end was nigh and keen to get home early, their keeper decided to take on the arm of our resident gun fielder Tom Stimpson. With a second run never really on, Stimmo launched the ball in from the deep like Thor throwing his hammer at a helpless foe. Charlie did the work at the bowler's end and Stimmo stood in the outfield arms outstretched like Flintoff circa 2005, a god amongst men.

At the other end, Wildo continued to probe despite some big hitting from their number 7 and he eventually snuck one through the gate to leave them 9 down. Victory was finally sealed when Manno snaffled one down the ground off Charlie and it was handshakes and bum slaps all round.

All in all, a perfect performance and one that has left us 32 points clear in second place as we chase promotion. Gunnar and Sappy could not have got us off to a better start and if Sappy's innings last week was good, this was even better! Perfectly weighted and just when we needed it in a big game and then without Waring, the game might have been completely different had we posted 170.

In reply, Nozza was brilliant from the off and our fielding was a million times better than theirs and as Stimmo said, we are easily one of if not the best fielding side in the division. The only thing letting us down a bit is our catching and I worry one week it may come back to haunt us but that is something we can work on.

Great to see everyone stepping up when it matters in a big game and to see everyone buzzing so much off the win! Now we have another 7 big games as we push for promotion so we have to keep up this intensity! Next week we face Rayleigh at home looking to make it 3 in a row.