The Mighty 4s Finish on a High against Brondesbury

The North Midd 4s's season drew to a victorious conclusion against Brondesbury on a bitterly cold, grey, overcast English afternoon in Walthamstow. It was the sort of day that, if I may borrow an aphorism from oft-quoted wicket-keeper/philosopher Mikey Edwards, "really tested our love of the sport". After the plentiful droppings of goose excrement littering the square had been removed from the wicket itself - (this was not a quick process - apparently the goose poo situation was "the worst it had been all season". I didn't find this hard to believe - cleaning the wicket took around 15 minutes and forced the sacrificing of a warm-up), skipper Pistol won the toss (the second time in two weeks he informed me) and to everyone's relief elected to bowl.

The opening combination of Boots and Pistol proved too much for the Brondesbury top order: Pistol claimed his first wicket in the 3rd over, the opening batsman bowled whilst defending, the ball dribbling back on to his stumps. Bootsy then went one better, cleaning up the number 3 with a lovely delivery which moved away and hit the top of off, before removing the no 4 the following ball, superbly caught one handed at gully by a Strauss-esque Sam Masud. Pistol trapped the no 5 lbw for 3, and at 34-4 after 11 overs the Midd were well on top. The Brondesbury opener, who had scored 100 in the reverse fixture, remained in, however, and was clearly the danger man. With the wicket flattening out, Pistol ended his comparatively short spell (just the 15 overs), to bring on Gaurav. The opening bat passed 50, and in Gaurav's second over was badly dropped at mid-off by yours truly. Not perturbed, the subsequent over the opener skied another one, this time to long on, where Sam calmly took his second catch of the day. After this it was a matter of cleaning up the tail. Gaurav dismissed the no 6 for a staggering 16 off 89 balls. Some lower order Brondesbury hitting took the score over the 100 mark, before a hostile spell from Sam (16-3), together with his chirp ("Get in the Boat mate" a personal highlight) proved too much for the tail. 134 to win.

In response, Gaurav and Richard Verity opened up. Second over Gaurav smashed one straight to cover, bringing Will Crackers to the crease. With Rich, they put on a scratchy, steady 50 (also described as "the slowest batting we've had all year" by Pistol), but with so many overs to bat this was never going to be a real problem. Crackers inexplicably left a straight one on 16, and Chris Evans strode out. His first ball creamed for four seemed a statement of intent. The run rate upped instantly, the sun came out from behind the clouds, and by the time Chris was eventually dismissed for 42 were on 104 and almost there. Richard (45*) continued where Chris left off, including a shot of the day extra cover 4 and, ably assisted by Patrick Burgoyne (14*) the 4s cruised home to secure 10 points and a 3rd place finish for the season!