An entertaining match that the Village just had enough about them to pick up the victory

Having lost the toss for the 5th game in a row, Lawrence was surprisingly asked to field first, the first time this season the 3rd team have been required to chase.

A lengthy delay while the majority of the opposition arrived ensued, but we eventually got started around 2 o'clock. An early LBW shout from Dan Penny against the opener was upheld and with his only full ball of the day! Dan is rapidly becoming competition for Pete's grumpy crown in the 3rd team!

The openers were unable to find another breakthrough, with Ickenham's colts playing extremely well, but not accumulating too many runs. Exentually the pressure foretold and Yas picked up two wickets in 2 balls, before picking up another 2 wickets in an over two overs later.

During this time the Ickenham number 5 was looking particularly brutal taking 16 off Ali Ilyas' first over. However a fortuitous LBW shout was given off the bowling of Dan Butcher, to which we all gave a sigh of relief.

The remainder of the batsmen all contributed quick runs, but opportunities were always created and with Ali Ilyas persisting with the half trackers tactic, they picked out the skipper perfectly at cow corner. Ben Crocker, making his debut for the 3rd team, tried the same tactic, this time the batsman missing his pull and getting bowled.

The captain brought himself on as the 9th bowler and finished off the tail with a rank long hop cut straight to point and a full ball that somehow managed to be given out LBW despite it missing a second set of stumps and the batsman middling it into his pad.

At the turnaround we needed 187 to win, which Riz and Matin were not able to contribute too much to, both getting out in the first 6 overs. Yas then came in and took the attack to the bowlers, opening his account with a 6 and a 4. Pete at the other end scratched around before being deceived by a surprise straight ball, and not waiting for the umpires decision, walked to an LBW appeal. Ali departed an over later and Yas was out soon after, having made his 50, but Ben Crocker continued where he left off making a quickfire 20 before being bowled. With 70 to win when Shahme and Lawrence were at the crease, the two chose to set small targets to reduce the total. Despite neither of them scoring freely, the runs required fell rapidly owing to the number of extras conceded by Ickenham. In a total of just 187, they contrived to concede 52 extras including 34 wides (and the umpiring was generous!).

By the time Shahme and Ali Ilyas had departed in quick succession, we needed 23 to win. Dan saw that the game wouldn't become tight, hitting 4 boundaries in his score of 19 not out to give the village the win.

It was good to see that the team could chase, but we should have won the game more comfortably than we did. Hopefully that will give us some momentum going into next week's game against top of the table Abbotts Langley