Firsts struggle to losing draw

For those getting the hang of my piece meal reporting will note that I had (wrongly?) settled for an early Saturday evening at Little Bounds rather than returning to Bramcote to see the Alan Lewis inspired run to victory for the Seconds - on a par with my decision not to stay at Wollaton last w/end when the Firsts mugged the home team after my departure. I arrived at LB hoping for a win befitting the third placed team in "A" over a team looking at the drop. Balderton were defending 162 with noteworthy figures for Peter Vladev (3-19) and "the legend" that is Phil "Lafers" Lafbery (3-32). Mentioning Peter, as I parked he was smartly caught behind for 28 and the newish electronic scoreboard shone out in the gloom the ominous 76-6 in the 36th over. Truly an innings going nowhere and that pattern was maintained as Oli Taylor and Ryan Duggan were soon to trudge back to the Lafbery Pavilion. Defeat seemed inevitable as Tariq Mahmood strode to the wicket with a reputation for being a 6 or bust merchant - with the best part of 12 overs left. A case of not wanting the extra 2 overs available from the visitors for not using their 50 over allocation. A subdued pavilion waited for the inevitable - which never arrived! Tariq was (largely) composed and defended stoutly as did Matt Footitt who never looked like getting out. Tariq was so confident he signed off with a flurry of boundaries including a big six and lost ball. So we get 7 points from a below par batting performance towards the 13 points conceived wisdom (well, Martin Charlesworth told me) says will guarantee a club high of third, while Balderton missed out on 2 points and for all their best efforts leaves them at the bottom of the division. The news then came through of the Seconds powering to victory at Bramcote and the subdued pleasure of getting a losing draw went up a notch or two.

Charlie George