The clouds threatened to dampen Appleshaw’s enthusiasm to right the wrongs of their agonising last match, but barring some light drizzle the weather held for another encounter with Linkenholt – a fixture that always manages to be eventful! Because of their tardiness (and ours, if we’re honest!), we reduced the match to 18 overs each.
Linkenholt were not allowed to get away with their usual tactic of arriving late and therefore batting first in the light (thanks Mr Chairman!) and our openers JG and Harry F strode confidently out to the middle. Some decent bowling made runs hard to come by, but through 1s and 2s a foundation was being slowly build before Floydy was castled by their first change bowler. Joe V made a ‘blink and you’d miss it’ cameo being run out the following over for 3. This brought our danger man Charlie R to the crease and the team looked on eagerly for some fireworks, and were rewarded by a textbook back-foot drive for 6 (narrowly missing a police car). Sadly he then faced a ball so slow that you could actually see Charlie change his mind about 4 times before missing it and being bowled. Rupes showed real intent, crashing some boundaries to add to our worryingly low score, and JG looked to open up but was caught having anchored the innings well. James F joined Rupes and started to push some useful singles, but then another wicket fell as Rupes was bowled. Jo Fry had some mighty practise swings at a few before starting to connect and hit a couple of blistering 4s through the leg side, before being bowled in the 2nd to last. Jules, with a point to prove having been labelled as a bowler by the Chairman (incorrectly, as we will see….) added 14 from the last to bring us to 109-6.
Freddie and Simon opened with some decent stuff, but their opening pair seemed untroubled and set off at a blistering pace having decided to take the aerial route on a slow outfield. A change to James F brought controversy almost immediately; their opening bat fell on his arse trying to smash a ball back over the bowler and was smartly stumped by Teddy. The whingeing that followed from the batter and their famously chatty umpire about the track and how unsporting that dismissal was prompted Jules to call him back, if only to stop the dripping. As Charlie astutely pointed out to them, the chances of being called back by them for a similar incident were slim…. Happily their batter only lasted a few more before being caught behind off James…even better that their umpire gave it as he seemed ready to argue the toss about that one too! Their no. 3 was immediately into the action, but got lucky after skying one to mid-wicket – a difficult high chance dropped by Freddie. Jules brought himself on and bowled a decent first over, but then his second was absolutely carted around the ground by their powerful no.3. Notably, a huge maximum from the over has led to Appleshaw CC’s first ever use of the insurance, after a car window stopped it!