“I thought this team weren’t any good?”

… was the comment overheard by the scorer as the Gattling Fenns went on to record a magnificent victory! Stretton, who I believe have beaten us every year for the past 4 years came unstuck this year after a match full of incident. It’s all down the captaincy I think.

Peter informed me that we had a new ball and if we got the chance to we should bowl. I took this with due consideration and thought i’d put all effort into winning the toss. My last opening gambit worked wonders so I thought i’d try it again. “The pitch looks interesting?” I said as i promptly lost the toss. Fortune was on our side though as they elected to bat.

We had the bizarre opening of 2 left handed batsmen and 2 left handed bowlers. Coupled with the fact that the ball had huge amounts of swing, this managed to cause confusion with everyone and three early wickets fell. Talking to one of their team after the game, it would seem that they have 4 ‘big hitters’ and we got 3 of them out for 1, 10 and 2 respectively. Confusion it seems is a good thing!

After the good start, things settled down into the monotomy of them scoring runs and us moving the sight screen. In all my time at Harbury I don’t think i’ve ever seen it moved before? Eventually the inevitable happened, Tom Bradley decided that the quickest way to despatch the Stretton opener Oldham was to let him get lots of 4′s so that he reached his 50 quickly. With hope renewed we got back on to wicket taking ways and quickly wrapped up the rest of the wickets leaving Stretton with a score of 175 all out.

The batting display was where we shone. The opening partnership of Jack Pittom and Tom Russell reached 110 before a momentary lapse by Jack on 33. Very shortly afterwards Tom reached his 50 in style as he hit a huge 6 while on 49 runs. All this after just 15 overs, surely the rest of us could get 65 off 25 overs?

A minor wobble by the mid order left Tony & Tom Bradley the honours of coasting to victory with an impressive 28 not out from Tom. All in all, an impressive display.

And in true ‘Fenn’, we all waited in the pub afterwards until the away team had left before serving up the chips and sandwiches!

So that’s 3 games played this year with 2 wins and 1 humiliation.Who’s going to be captain next year?

Message from Peter.

‘This is just to thank you all in our splendid win last Sunday. With only three game completed out of the scheduled nine, it is a wonder that we recognised one another. It was a real pleasure to play. Kind Regards Pete’