On a high from beating the Presidents XI last week, we prepared to play E&W Hendred on a warm, dry but slightly cloudy day. Having won the toss, we elected to bat first , hoping to post a suitably high score that would keep us busy for the rest of the day. PoD and ’Bows opened the batting and looked good for a couple of overs with the score ticking over at five an over until ’Bows cut one away to point and was caught for 4. I came in to replace him but four overs later, I was bowled by an inswinging ball for 5. Moobs managed to see off the rest of the opening bowlers with PoD until in the 13th over, the bowler, Bateman, had PoD stumped and Moobs LBW for 21 and 10 respectively. PoD hitting 441444 for his 21 which he pointed out “did not look like a usual PoD performance”. With the score at 48 for 4 off 13, but with potentially some strong batting still to come, Angel and Peachy were next into the firing line. Angel batted strongly, playing some fine defensive shots interspersed with some nice cuts and drives. Peachy didn’t; bowled by Bateman for 2. Tweekey faced the same number of balls as Peachy (6) but didn’t manage to get as far as 2 (2 less than 2, in fact) before he also was bowled. Angel and Gorgeous were now both looking strong against some very straight bowling that was difficult to get away. Stewie finally mistimed a shot and was caught having scored a good 17 runs. Barriii joined Gorgeous at the crease. Gorgeous too was caught three overs later on 14, having been jeered by the onlookers for scoring too slowly as the end of the overs were approaching. We then had Barriii and Pippyyy Martin at the crease with 5 overs remaining. Surely we could get another 50 runs from these two? Barriii heaving the bat around, managed to score 3 fours and 3 singles before walking down the wicket to heave at another ball and was promptly stumped. Last man in, Lurch. 3 overs to go, only 112 runs on the board. A couple of 4’s later there was a bit of a mix up and Lurch was run out for 4. Ryan left stranded on 14 not out. Wantage and Grove on 125 all out. Oh dear! Still, PoD provided a lovely tea, worthy of lots of teapots had the urn been turned on properly by the skipper before the game. Anyway, 125 was going to be an extremely difficult figure to bowl at. Suffice to say that we didn’t do it. Our bowling was good, but not good enough. Barriii 0 for 31 from 6, Pippy 0 for 26 from 6, Lurch 2 for 16 from 4, Angel 1 for 25 from 6, Moobs 0 for 4 from 3 and Peachy 1 for 12 from 0.5. Hendred had scored the necessary run in 25 overs. Highlights were: Lurch bowling the opening batsman that looked most dangerous with his third ball. Barriii’s catch from Lurch’s bowling. Gorgeous taking a good catch behind the stumps. Angel getting underneath a ball that nearly went into orbit, and catching the ball comfortably, to earn him champagne moment and going towards man of the match for the catch, his wicket and 17 runs. Duncan managed to get Pigs Ear for being declared the guilty party in the run out.