The Curse of 250 Strikes Again!

Now 250 should be something to look back on with pride should it not? Well not at Rayleigh Fairview it isn't. Its fast becoming something that strikes fear into the heart! "Nice not to be trying to defend 85 as a bowler" I cheekily said to Lee Hayward as Stuart Warren and Matt Feather plundered Danbury's bowling to all corners. I had certainly spoken too soon when Danbury's batsmen (all 3 of them!) deposited our bowlers past and over the 15 yard boundary again and again and we went down by 9 wickets.

This week it was the turn of the 1's. Full of confidence after beating Great Waltham the week before and a game against bottom of the table East Hanningfield and Great Burstead, a team who had lost 5 from 5 there really wasn't anything to fear.

Then of course it happened. EH&GB rattled up 250 on the nose. We never even got close. I had barely warmed up my scoring pencil and there were Ames, Crompton and those Lawson brothers all arguing over who was going to take umpiring duties whilst myself and the Hayward's wondered how on earth we were going to get the runs. We needn't have worried we weren't going to get them and we didn't.

The game started badly as runs flowed from the bats of EH&GB's openers and before you knew it they had a fifty partnership. Dawson finally made the breakthrough with a classic long hop edged behind and safely taken by Ames and followed it up by disturbing their number 3s timbers. Dawson in partnership with Alec Hayward stemmed the run rate considerably in the middle overs. I managed to conjure up a candidate for worst celebration of the season including the word booyaka! and to make matters worse it wasn't exactly a great piece of bowling either. Safe hands Jellet snared one at short extra off Alec to get them 4 down and when I finally got a yorker right I backed it up with a much better celebration, to be fair it couldn't of been any worse. After that little went right for us and we all walked off for tea with EH&GB 250-5 with the writing well and truly on the wall.

The batting was woeful. Grompton hit a nice late cut for two to get us started, then edged to the slips, Jawson edged behind, Dawson missed a straight one (that's normally what happens when you get bowled Dan!!) and Ames smashed one to midwicket and before you know it were about 40-4 and us tailenders are scrambling through our kit bags. The procession continued unabated and when yours truly was last out for a paltry 2 we were done for 112, with the Great Raymondo stranded on 35.

Better news came from the 2s who smashed their way to 325-5 and won by 216 with standout performances from James McLean 132, Dave Ambrose 94, Matt Knight 53, Big Ash Faires 4-14 and Dot Ball Dave Ashby 3-27.

Kelvin and the kids were hammered again but at least made a fight of it after being bowled out for 78 by Rankins 3s as they lost by 4 wickets.

Role on next weekend and if either side gets 250 on the nose then there will be more tales of woe to come of that you can be sure!

Results
EH & GBCC 1st XI 250-5 (26pts) beat RFCC 1st XI 112 All Out (2pts) by 138 runs
RFCC 2nd XI 325-5 (26pts) beat Navestock Ardleigh Green CC 2nd XI 109 (2pts) by 216 runs
RFCC 3rd XI 78-10 (3pts) lost to Rankins CC 3rd XI 79-6 (26pts) by 4 wickets

Fixtures. 15/06/2013.
RFCC 1st XI vs Hatfield Peveral CC 2nd XI.
Broomfield CC 2nd XI vs RFCC 3rd XI.

16/06/2013
South Woodham Ferrers CC Friendly XI vs RFCC Sunday 1st XI

* The views expressed within this blog are expressly my own and are not in anyway attributable to Rayleigh Fairview Cricket Club or any person connected to it in any way.