1st XI vs Aztecs CC, Ilford, Saturday 1st XI

A second league victory of the season was gained at Aztecs CC by the comfortable margin of five wickets.

Dave Hickey lost the toss and the hosts decided to bat on a pitch where the outfield was desperately in need of another cut after the council had decided to leave it long and not bother to get rid of the grass they had trimmed. The boundary would have given Linford Christie a good workout, such was the size of it! This was to prove decisive.

Leading wicket taker Jack Plom carried on where he left off by taking his first wicket in the first over, thanks to a smart catch by James Salisbury. A fifty one run partnership followed before Tom Arnold took two quick wickets, the second after the batsman tried to take him on after being hit on the noggin. The fourth wicket to fall was the other opening bat, falling to Plommy during his second spell. Lesiba got the first of his two lbw wickets in the next over, and, sandwiched in between them was Plommy's third, followed by a fourth. Evan Ackerman was thrown the ball and bamboozled the batsman with a deceptively slow ball which he thought he would start his scoring on. This was from Evan's first ball, and the biggest grin came from his father Stephen, who couldn't believe his son was capable of such things! Tom Arnold took the final wicket an the hosts were bowled out for a measly 123 in 43.5 overs. All the bowlers performed well, with Sam Bear and Jack Newton the unlucky ones not to take any wickets. FIVE boundaries were score in the innings, a testament to the fine bowling and long grass.

A cautious start was needed, even though we only needed to score at 2.5 runs per over. Evan and Ollie Ekers laid down a foundation before Evan was the first to go with the score on 28. Lezza then decided to show the opposition how to score boundaries by hitting his first for six. Ollie managed two fours before getting himself run out with the score on 64. A mini collapse of three wickets for six runs just before drinks saw a slight wobble as we reached the 25th over on 87-5.Plommy and Sam took their time and batted through the next nine and a half overs to see us comfortably home. We had hit eight 4's and two 6's in our innings.

Next weekit's the battle of the Ploms as Ryan Plom brings his Horndon on the Hill side to the Shen. Any motivation needed???