Mistake?

New Season another strange game.

The addition of League umpires for the first game of the season plus a third umpire surely a first for the EK 2's saw us involved in another strange game.

Titwood won the toss, elected to bat first on something which resembled a cricket wicket (great job by the Titwood groundstaff on getting anything resembling a playable wicket at this stage of the season). After the 2 Captains received a lecture on their responsibilities towards the game and team conduct play got underway.

Stevie Mann (living in fear of the Captain deciding to bat first on the bowlers paradise-like last year) tore in to the opposition and bowled with menace in partnership with Rajesh.

At 5 for 2 in 2 overs with hand grenades going off all around Timmy was overheard suggesting it might be a better idea to have bowled.

Timmy and batsman 4 and 5 then dug in and gradually turned from survival mode to domination as the wicket settled down and our attack began to toil.

28 overs yielded 2 wickets and 130 runs, the final 12 yielded 4 wickets at a cost of 119 runs allowing Titwood to close on 249 for 6.

Good bowling performances from Stevie and Rajesh (the death man) backed up by young Callum (developing well) and mention to the keeping with Gavin taking a 5 for.

A fine ton from Timmy coupled with an unbeaten 75 from Mr Tariq (surviving everything that we could throw at him - literally at one point) proved decisive for the game.

We needed a good start to have any chance but at 7 for 3 inside 4 overs we were not going to recover. The first 3 dismissals were typical first game type dismissals - 1 leading edge 1 chop on to the stumps and 1 bowled behind the legs.

The batting performance was captured with 3 cameos

Matthew digging in with some Yorkshire grit for his 17

Stevie slashing his way to top scoring with 21

Tommy showing more grit than Wilf (and the rest of the team) and batting for the bulk of our innings. The aptitude and attitude shown marks him out as a future batsman for the club.

In the end we collapsed then dug in for the fightback before collapsing again to be all out for 74 in 31 overs.

The strange element- the umpires discussing (in a Dickie Bird moment) taking us off the park (in bright sunlight-and howling gale) as the sprinklers and wind conspired to soak half the ground and wicket.