Led by the teenage triumvirate of Alfie (Macca Pacca) McAnespie, Elliot (The Best) Gale and Miles (and miles and miles) Anderson, the thirds got back on track with a 155 run victory over Tenbury Wells at Bartestree on Sunday.

On a baking hot day the skipper, having just spent 3 hours in the hot sun, was already under pressure as he walked out with Tenbury captain Ed Corfield to toss up. "'Bout time you won one skip!", "not even you could mess this one up Mr President", "you're fielding on your own if you lose this one1".

Thankfully, and for only about the 6th time in 2 seasons, he won one and it was a very happy President who strolled out to open the batting with Gopher as the clock ticked over to 1pm.

It was not such a happy President who watched Gopher trudge back to the pavilion 5 minutes later having run him out off a Free Hit. Common theme? Godsall, Gopher, whoever next? Goodman? Gale? Guaranga? Fast becoming the worst judge of a run in the club, who will be next in line to be run out by The President? Not Chappo for sure, he was only dealing in boundaries ("look at my 6 skip!") and clear singles in his quick fire 22. Not Elliot either, who came in at 4 to nervously asking if he could bring a runner with him... The skipper had to try to make up for his earlier folly and did so somewhat, getting to 74 in a rapid (for him) 90 balls, only to be bowled playing quite possibly the worst shot played at Bartestree. What was worse, this was played just after Fawbert Senior had arrived to watch, which led to some choice advice about "getting your head down and scoring a ton."

The good news is that the skipper was out at 159-3 in the 25th over; a healthy rate really.
What followed really was utter carnage and teenage kicks throughout the rest of the innings. 174 runs were added in 15 overs. Alfie, with some serious boshing (18 4s and 2 6s) hit his first ever ton off 52 balls, finishing on 111*. Elliot batted well to score 51 before he was run out (not by The President), and Miles and miles and miles was also run out by miles and miles (not by The President) off the last ball of the innings for 24 off 19. Amidst the carnage Ed and Bradders came and went for not a lot but did watch in awe as the young pretenders showed us the way. We finished on 333-7, which we hoped would be defendable despite Tenbury having to bat on a Motorway.

After devouring the remnants of the U11 tea, the team took the field determined to restrict the scoring, despite the rock hard outfield where even the skipper's defensive pats had gone for 4 earlier.

Tenbury got off to a reasonable start going at 5s, with their skipper, Ed, batting well and their other opener Tom Pugh looking to build an innings. The first 13 overs went for 65 before Miles (1-38) made the breakthrough, removing their skipper. However, despite some interesting Public School banter from Macca Pacca, their other opener remained unmovable. AK with is miserly 8 over spell (well 7 miserly and 1 quite generous) finished with 0-28, which led to the start of of a twin pronged spin attack. Alfie (0-27) and Elliot (1-36) rushed through their overs at a rate of knots, leaving the batsmen no time to think and teaming up to remove their number 3. Quickly the rate became 10, 15 and then 20 per over.
After 32 overs they require 187 to win, but Ben "The Hamster" Nicholl (0-19), Tim "The BFG" Bennett (0-23) and Miles wrapped up the innings leving Tenbury 155 short at 178-2.

The fielding was really tight, particularly from Dave "lightning Bolt" Bradbury, BFG and Hamster. Ed too, despite berating himself, was great in the deep and Goph patrolled the boundary like a lion...(of the stuffed variety).

The banter was great and the spirits remained high. It was good to get back on the winning trail. Thanks to Dickie for scoring and the Grounds Fairies for preparing the pitch. It has to be said though that Chappo looked very smug as he claimed to have put the finishing touches to the pitch at 8am that morning. Rumour has it that he did his own "special" watering after consuming his body weight of a famous red fruity drink on Saturday night.

Good to have a few supporters too in the form of The Nicholl clan, Fawbert Senior and Annie, Clemmos 1 and 2 and the better Bradbury and Chapman halves later on....