This game was billed as the summer festival of banter and it certainly lived up to its reputation. In fact, Saturday’s match is the reason why we have taken up cricket as a club.
The weather was brilliant, and the banter was flowing from the moment the first car pulled into the car park. Rosaneri competed well on the pitch and left the ground with the complete admiration of our opponents.
From the very first ball of the match Rosaneri were always on top and a combination of tidy bowling, good fielding and cautious batsmen meant a very gettable total for the pinks to chase.
The batting was thoroughly professional and an opening partnership of 50+ ensured no slip-ups as the pinks coasted to victory.
In fairness, the opposition were much weaker than last week’s highly talented collection of colts and older heads. But Harlow Town offered the classic club 3rd XI mix of veterans and enthusiastic colts. On the day, their slow approach to setting a total let them down, as their bowling was very neat and tidy.
Player notebook:
Ben Underwood – Played beautifully for his 20 runs. Looked very solid throughout his innings and also demonstrated some great fielding.
Shell – Looked magnificent and placed his way to a superb 49. Got out by being bowled off his pads, which is never a great way of going, but on 49 it must have hurt even more.
K.Mully – Did his best to get the club an appointment with the ECB. His list of offences to acceptable etiquette included, turning up to the match topless, wearing a mesh Chav cap while fielding, turning the same cap round backwards while batting, belching while walking out to bat, and asking an umpire if it was ok for him to have a wee in the outfield. However, his playing could not be faulted. Fielded without mistake and batted aggressively for a super 25.
Coxy – Returned brilliant bowling figures and took an opening batsman’s wicket. His batting also took on a new confidence and was really unlucky to get out to a vicious lifter from just short of a length.
Bloater – His wicket keeping came in for some early stick, but bounced back well to take a stumping and a catch. Batted in the manor we have become accustomed to and ended up seeing the pinks home unbeaten.
Stephen Underwood – Did get caught sleeping in the field, but bowled one of the most accurate spells ever seen by a Rosaneri bowler. Solid with the bat and looked capable of building a big score.
G.Mully – Billed as the banter ringmaster before the game got under way and he certainly did not disappoint his fans. Successfully managed to fuse banter and etiquette where his brother clearly did not. Bowled really well in a 3 over spell and was unlucky not to cash in with a wicket.
Kirk – Bowled an opening spell second only to Mat Freeman against Farnham this season. Accurate beyond this level of cricket, and was almost impossible to score runs from. Had been promoted up the batting order as a reward, but didn’t get the chance.
Ni.Shewring – Bowled a lovely spell of 8 straight overs with accuracy and guile. Unlucky not to get more wickets on the day, but the important thing to take away was the accuracy and consistency.
Downing – Another who bowled very well and deservedly picked up another bundle of wickets. Things certainly livened up as usual when Jim came on and things began to happen. Missed stumpings, dropped catches, and batsmen at last playing attacking shots.
Shuttlewood – The scorebook indicates that John bowled well. However, John will know in his heart that there is clearly a need to develop consistency. When he bowled in the right area he was very good, but far too many balls drifted down the leg side and a very generous umpire saved the figures without doubt.