Dan H had no hesitation in choosing to field on lovely evening. It looked like scoring may be hard work as the groundsman’s mower had clearly not found the outfield for a few days!

Dan R & Dan H opened the attack with Dan R getting quickly amongst them bowling a good line and length and snaffling an early wicket. Dan H bowled a really nice line and length. This kept the opening pair down to 14 but it was clear from some of the shots the batsman played we were up against some strong competition.

Thomas & Arthur were on next. Arthur bowled a very steady line and grew in confidence as his spell progressed with no runs coming off the bat in his second over. Thomas bowled consistently again and got a wicket in his second over giving a tidy return of 2overs, 1 wicket for 4 runs. This kept the partnership down to 11 and the total to 227.

Freddy & Finn were next. The boys faced a very strong batting pair and after they got off to a strong start with some blistering shots, both boys took wickets in consecutive overs to peg them right back. The pair put on 18 moving the score onto 245.

Charlie & Tom were our last pair and just as it looked like Rickmansworth were going to break loose an excellent spell from both boys kept them down to just 5 runs. Charlie 2 overs, 1 wicket for 6 runs and Tom 2 overs 1 wicket for 9 runs. Leaving Rickmansworth on 250

Tring Innings

We batted in the same order we fielded.

Dan H & Dan R got us underway. It became clear very quickly we were up against some strong bowling and fielders. The boys ran really positively turning several one’s into two’s and both played shots with real power and purpose. Unfortunately we lost three wickets including Dan H being bowled by the best ball I have seen this season (a leg stump Yorker) which pegged the boys right back undoing much of the great work they had done with their running.

Thomas & Arthur were next. Again they ran really well and played some nice shots with both boys playing shots with more power than they have previously in the season. Another good ball caught Arthur out in the last over but the pair still managed to add nine runs to the score.

Freddy & Finn arrived and played some crunching shots with Freddy pulling a four and Finn playing two lovely cover drives, however again we were niggled by losing wickets too good bowling at regular intervals which pegged us back when we threatened to make inroads to the opposition score.

Charlie & Tom were our last pair, they made a barnstorming start with Tom crashing the ball for two fours in the first two balls and then scoring consistently to add 11 runs off his own bat. Charlie played some classy shots finding the gaps and running well. But we again lost wickets hampering our progress.

All of this left us with 212, falling 38 short of the opposition.
Despite the result there were many positives. Our fielding was very strong again, it was our best bowling performance with only 13 extras bowled and by far our best running between the wickets. However unlike previous matches we came up against some very strong and accurate bowling. If we can take the lesson from the game that we cannot attack accurate bowling and need to be a little more patient with our shot selection we will take another big step forward.

This week’s MOM was:

• Freddy for another solid batting and bowling performance and his continued excellent fielding

We also had two shot of the day awards again:

• Finn for his square drive
• Tom for hi crunching pull just falling short of a six!