The Nutters narrowly lose out against Felbridge & Sunnyside

The Nutters travelled to East Grinstead last Sunday under the Captaincy of Guy Ekins. Put into the field Robbie Keen and Keith Greenwood opened the bowling. Wadingham and James were the opening pair who began cautiously against some decent pace. Robbie bowled tight lines but was not rewarded for his ten overs of toil. The breakthrough came when James ran out of lives on 13. Having survived a dropped catch from Catterall the fielder was let off the hook when Greenwood trapped him LBW the very next delivery.

It proved to be an afternoon when pace off of the ball brought the wickets. Taylor came in at No3 and wasted no time in playing his shots. Jeremy James replaced Greenwood and soon made an impact when Wadingham snicked one to Keeper Charlie South. With only 4 runs added James then trapped Alley LBW for 0. Weston (9-3-4-25) replaced Keen and after sorting out his run up set about removing the middle order. Included in this spell was a moment of pure comedy theatre, which should have allowed Bull (13) to gently stroll from the far end, where both batsmen found them standing next to each other. Singh threw to Weston, who spooned the ball in completely the wrong direction away from the stumps. Weston turned and threw the ball at full throttle at the stumps, missing by a country mile. It was somehow intercepted by Willis, standing a yard or so away and he managed to dislodge the bails.

Singh caught a skied shot from Taylor, who top scored with 61. Willis then caught Pollard, managing to cling on to a fiercely struck drive above his head. Weston bowled J Green and had B Green stumped by Charlie South. The tail end wagged with a key partnership between young Aldridge 12 N.O and R Shepherd 10 N.O took the total to 138-9.

Raggi Singh and Jonny Willis(15) put on 35 for the first wicket, when Willis was caught behind by Keeper Shepherd. Only 15 but enough for Jonny to reach the milestone of 5000 runs for The Nutters in relatively short shrift. David Butcher lasted 17 deliveries without scoring and suffered the exact demise of Willis. Guy Ekins steadied the ship, but with the introduction of the nagging length of Yule (8-0-5-21) he played the most uncharacteristic swoosh and was stumped on 12. Charlie South soon followed the same way for 5 and Raggi finally ran out of patience and was caught in the deep going for glory, having made 43. Then followed a procession as Keen (5) was trapped LBW by J Green, Greenwood caught at mid off and Weston (0) with an identical dismissal to Greenwood trying to play his shots. Only Stu Catterall (9 N.O) offered any further resistance, James being Yule’s final victim. Nick Sherlicker D.N.B due to a domestic emergency and the home side ran out worthy victors having reduced The Nutters to 101 all out.

By TC 'four fer' Weston