A new opposition this one for the Badgers, Hampstead 5ths, and it must be said there was some slight murmurings of worry amongst us. This was a team that had smashed over 300 last weekend, were unbeaten all season, and well, lets be honest came from a posh club with a ground and everything. However these fears proved to be unfounded as I tell you the tale of Bam Bam II, Bam Harder.
As the Badgers trickled into Haydons Road with Hampstead already kitted up and ready to go we looked a little ramshackle, especially when our opening bowler (Foord) forgot his kit and our keeper (Jinks) drove him home to get it as we waited on the pitch for them.
But this was clearly just a case of lulling the Hampstead into a false sense of security as our Skipper and the now fully kitted Foord opened the bowling. Foordy bowled very well and was unlucky, but this was Bam-Bam’s day. Sending down vicious inswinger over and over, ending up with 4-13 off 5 overs. It was brutal and I was praying it wasn’t coming to gully, fortunately he decided to bowl out the entire top four.
After the brutality of opening pair it was on to some gentler fair with Lewis (early, and had all his kit, well done) and Cade. Lewis found some strong line and lengths and was unfortunate to see a drop off his bowling costing him a deserved wicket. Cade found that whilst not bowling full tosses and wides is more aesthetically pleasing and economical it doesn’t equal as many wickets, ending up with 1 wicket (caught, by yes, Bam-Bam) off 8 reasonably tidy overs.
During this Hampstead had started to regroup so it was time to unleash the anger. Enter the one, the only, the jetlagged and trigger happy Stew Mac. Regaling us with tails of shooting sniper rifles in America to scare us, he then scared the batsmen with the anger ball coming out a few times on his way to picking up three wickets. Dave Hirst saw the anger ball and decided he wanted a bit of that too, so started sending down the ball at ferocious speeds, and generally just bowling rather nicely picking up 1-10 off four.
Tea: strong, the badgers fully heading the advice of our leader had a fantastic selection of treats to choose from. Props to Bam-Bams selection of cakes (particularly the apple, cinnamon and custard cupcakes) and to Martin’s sandwiches.
And into bat we went, and all was looking quite rosy. After a few, well placed edges Jinks and Cloke settled, dealing in, at one point, exclusively boundaries. Indeed Jinks, on his way to tidy 20 made them all from 4s. Cloke similarly seemed to prefer focussing on boundaries on his way to a very useful 28 holding an end up. Notable highlights including cover drives for four from both, including one which tested the fielding skills of Stew Mac to ensure Jinks Junior escaped the game unscathed. Next up on the hitters was Morsey who fell to a similar curse of getting out in the 20’s (28) as our beloved openers, but scoring some traditional Morse-esque hits enroute to it. Following the dismissal of Badger newbies, Paul and Chris (who will be very welcome again, lovely chaps), we were starting to get slightly tense about reaching a seemingly small(ish) total. However our opening bowlers once more stepped in to get us over the line. Foord (11*) teaming up with (I am sure you have guessed by now) man of the match Bam-Bam for a fifty partnership to see us home. It is worth pausing here to observe Robin’s (37*) first 6 and last 6 balls; first 6 were all dots, his last six were: dot,4,4,4,4,6. This was unfortunate for the bowler on the receiving end of this who before this had 3-17 off four, these figures converted to 3-39 in the space of an over.
Overall a jolly good effort, top bowling, fielding and batting by all concerned.