The 1sts made the relatively short trip to Moddershall this week hoping to get their first win of the season under their belts. With the promise of 2 umpires and the prospect of teas, the mood was high in the camp!

A warm up game of football led to a highly entertaining 0-0, before White shocked the dressing room to the very core by winning a toss and inserting Moddershall to bat on a green looking track with overhead conditions looking favourable to be in the field.

AJ and Ollie took the new ball and both bowled good lines, with AJ - bowling in slippers, hooping the ball around and trapping Lindamulage LBW for 14. Ollie was unlucky to go unrewarded and got punished one too many times to the 5 yard boundary on the off side before Archie Wilkes was brought into the attack. Having put on 15 yards of pace over the winter, Archie bowled exceptionally well, getting the batsman jumping around the crease and challenging both edges of the bat before being rewarded with wicket of Illukkumbura gloving one down the leg side and brilliantly taken by the impressive James Peasley behind the stumps.
Jordan and Ade to bowl next, Ade getting a bit of tap early on (including a bat to the shin from the batsman) before settling into a decent rhythm, while Jordan kept things tight and picked up a couple of crucial wickets along the way for his 2-21 off 9.

First highlight of the day came when AJ’s slippers finally gave way and he flew through the air a cover, both feet off the floor which had VAR been in operation would absolutely have been a red card.

Burslem and Archie closed out the innings with the ball, Burslem unlucky, having a couple of dropped catches off his bowling. Jordan the main culprit dropping a sitter at point, only to blame the completely non-existent sun for getting in his eyes. Archie closed the innings out with White taking a steepling catch to finish with the impressive figures of 2-32 off his 6.4.

So that brought us to tea… as the team went over to the pavilion we were told that teas were for the first team only, and not the lesser mortals on the 2nd pitch. The disappointment was tangible, although thankfully Ade had a chicken club sandwich as back up. As Ade peeled back the wrapper on his chicken club, salivating as he did, over walked the local club dog to swallow it whole. Ade now starving and fed up entered into conversation with the dogs owner (who admitted to never having fed the dog before), and requested his sandwich be replaced. When offered, Ade flatly refused the request, that showed him!

So CE to bat next. Jordan and Burslem opened up, Burslem missed a straight one and went early for 6, claiming the bowler that had just beat him all ends up to be “garbage”.

Smithy and Jordan came together - and put on a solid 60 run partnership. Both looking solid until Smithy got into the 30’s, developed a nervous twitch knowing he was about to get out and knicked one onto his pad down the leg side and was caught by Jayawickrama for a well made 33. Jordan quickly fell afterwards, chipping one to cover for another well made 25.

A collapse quickly ensued… CE falling from 72-1 to 102-8. White hitting a couple of lusty blows in the midst of it before inexplicably giving the bowler catching practice having already hit 2 sixes in the over.

Ade (now absolutely starving and running on fumes), showed some late resilience alongside James Peasley for 7 off 29 and 5 off 26 respectively.
Ade the last to fall to cap off his perfect day.

All in all a disappointing result, compounded with Burslem not being arsed to put Smithy’s kit in the van afterwards and running it over instead.

Some real positives though - Ollie, Archie and James showed some great promise, which we’ll build on as the season goes on.