Sandwich Defeat Hard to Swallow

The touring party made its way to the beautiful Butts ground in Sandwich, via the Sandwich coffee house were bleary eyed and stiff limbed cricketers woke themselves up with Coffee and cake. Skipper Raggy won the toss and chose to bat in what was predicted the better of the weather.
Charlie South and Jonty opened the batting, the pair looked in good nick and were surprisingly bright between the wickets. The pair put on 41 for the first wicket and did n’t seem to be in any trouble until Jonty failed to respond to Charlies call for a quick single and was run out. David Butcher hit the sight screen with a fine four but was then bowled next ball by the off spin of Smith. Bob Samways and South then steadied the ship, manipulating accurate bowling from the young bowlers, before Charlies was bowled by a ball that nipped back. Samways looked odds on for a big score before he became the first of Ollie Collins 5 wickets. Collins normally bowls off spin for first and seconds, but choose to experiment with nippy medium pace. In his 6 overs he took five middle order wickets, rather slowing Nuthurst’s run rate.
After an excellent tea and a brief rain shower Sandwich began their innings, Needham and Levey putting together a steady partnership of 49. Nuthurst’s opening bowlers Jez and Chippy bowled well. Chippy was very unlucky that a few low edges did not stick behind the wicket. The arrival of 2nd Team No 3 bat Ben Smith changed the game. His assured front foot play advanced the score quickly. Smith was dropped by Will Morris in a spectacular effort to take a hard hit return catch. However Smith took a particular liking to Raggy Singh and the runs flowed. TC came on and took the wicket of Smith and Rodgers and could have had more if the ball had gone to hand. Raggy and his team tried to squeeze the game and deny the new batsman scoring opportunities but the runs came and defeat was now inevitable. DB was denied his first wicket for the club off his first ball, with Jezza unable to see the lofted ball in the sun and missed the catch.
Both sides enjoyed the game and the celebrated Englands Woman cricket team winning the world cup. Fines were administered, after a minor constitutional crisis. The touring team retired to Luigis for dinner, Sandwiches fine Italian restaurant, including the now famous no hands pudding (Raggy winning with not a drop of pud on his beard, strange). The journey home was uneventful, but apparently quite entertaining in the minibus. It was a fine tour in good weather but now it was time for a rest.