Defeat for 3's in close game

This week the Village 3's travelled to Buckinghamshire to face Potton Town 2's who were top of the league.

The toss was lost by the skipper and we were put into bat on a sunny day with the pitch looking like a belter.

Piers Jenkins (34) and George Downes (17) started the innings nicely and managed to bring up an opening stand of 50 before George was bowled. That brought Joe Sheridan (58) to the crease and he started steadily whilst accumulating runs in the process. Piers was next to go trying to up the run rate and was subsequently caught in the deep. The Village were 88-2 but this had come off 28 overs. Rangan Krishnaswamy (2) was next in but did not last long as he was trapped LBW by Potton Town's slow bowler who was proving tricky to get away. Farzan Dulker Nain (44) joined Joe at the crease and slowly the run rate increased with both finding the boundary. They put on a 60 run partnership before Joe was next to depart caught in the deep trying to find the fence. With the score 151-4 after 39 overs, Graham Leggett (32*) was promoted up the order to 6 with the instructions to attack and get us to 200 and he did this with usual swashbuckling way. Farzan was then bowled and Dan Penny (16*) joined Graham at the crease and both continued to score at more than a run a ball eventually getting the Village to 216-5 off their 45 overs. The first 32 overs had yielded 101 runs with the remaining 13 going for 115 an excellent effort from the middle order batsman.

Chalky Cara (0-35) and George Leggett (1-47) opened the bowling and after a maiden from Chalky's first over, George responded with the first wicket in his first over bowling Potton's number 2 batsman for 0. This was soon followed by a run out after excellent fielding from Joe Sheridan and the home side were 3-2. That brought Potton's number 3 and 4 batsman to the crease and they both started rebuilding the innings. Their number 3 batsman had been the main run scorer in Potton's last few games and was a key wicket to get. Dan Penny (0-45) and Rangan Krishnaswamy (0-8) were the change up bowlers and in Rangan's first over the next wicket was to fall. Going for a quick single to Chalky is never a good idea and Chalky hit the stumps with only 1 to aim at to get the number 3 batsman out and the score was now 87-3. James Thompson (0-57) then replaced Dan at the far end and started off nicely with his first couple of overs only going for 10 or so runs. By this time 2 of the Potton Town kids were at the crease and their number 4 batsman, who had also opened the bowling and looked like a good cricketer had managed to amass 40 or so runs with his partner in the 20's and the Village needed a wicket. Step up Joe Sheridan to cause another run out and at 124-4 off 28 overs the Village were sensing a victory against top of the league. Joe Sheridan (2-22) had replaced young Leggett and within 2 overs had picked up the number 4 batsman trapped LBW and then their skipper bowled for 0, to leave them 157-6 off 34 overs. Unfortunately for the Village Potton's number 6 & 8 batsman then went on the charge and were managing to find the boundary and also rotate the strike and with 10 balls of the game left managed to get to 217 to win the game.

It was a disappointing end to the game for the Village who had looked in control until the last 10 overs but a good overall performance considering we were playing top of the league. Excellent contributions from Joe with bat, ball and his fielding skills and important knocks from Piers, Farzan and Graham but again it was the bowling that ultimately cost us the game.