Excellent performance in draw

The 3's were away at Frogmore 2nd XI on a warm day.

The skipper lost the toss and the Village were asked to bat first.

James Thompson (8) and Piers Jenkins (0) opened the batting and the Frogmore bowlers started well as the pitch was quick and bouncy. The skipper had got the first boundary of the day before he was bowled off his pads in the same over. Lawrence Bird (34) was next in but Piers was soon to follow his opening partner as he was also bowled to the lively number 2 bowler. Dan Penny (4) was next in and after hitting a straight drive for a boundary he was also bowled to an absolute jaffer of a delivery that just nicked his off stump leaving the Village 16-3 off of 8 overs. Matt Hawkes (99*) was next in to join Loz to try to rebuild the innings and progress was steady to begin with before Hawkesy began to find the boundary and release the pressure. Loz was not giving his wicket away and his first meaningful shot was a swept 6 over square leg. Both were playing nicely and getting the Village out of a real hole and at times they were both the aggressor as first Hawkesy took control before Loz got in on the action and was for a spell finding the boundary more freely than Hawkesy. It was Hawkesy however that really took the responsibility of scoring the Village runs and at the halfway stage the Village had recovered to 79-3. Soon after Hawkesy brought up a deserved 50 and the pair continued the good work as first the team 100 was brought up followed by the 100 partnership between the pair. It wasn't until the 33rd over, where Loz holed out trying to increase the run rate that the next wicket fell as the partnership reached 109. Kudzi Makopa (10) was next in and quickly plundered a few boundaries before he was bowled by the number 2 bowler who ended up with a fiver as he took the first 5 wickets to fall. Mohamed Salahudeen (9) was next to join Hawkesy and both continued to hit boundaries as the pair brought up the Village 170 and maximum batting points before Mo was caught. George Leggett (0) was next in but didn't trouble the scoring as he was caught which brought George Downes (0*) to the crease. The last over of the innings saw Hawkesy facing and needing just 6 runs for his maiden Village 100. The first ball he managed to find the fence but sadly he could only get 1 more run from the over as the final ball he missed and got a leg bye as the Village innings ended on 186-7.

George Leggett (2-32) and Tommy Smith (1-18) started the bowling for the Village and the first ball of the innings the Frogmore pair attempted a quick single but Kudzi Makopa threw the ball straight to Lawrence Bird for an easy run out. Tommy's first over also yielded a wicket as he bowled the number 3 batsmen with a beauty that took the off stump as the reply had started poorly at 1-2. The number 1 and 4 batsmen, who were father and son then went about rebuilding the innings much like Hawkesy and Loz had done for us and both were willing to free their arms and hit boundaries straight down the ground. The youngsters had both bowled well though and after both had bowled 6 overs each the score had reached 39-2. Dan Penny (1-36) and Chalky Cara (2-42) replaced the opening pair and both were looking threatening as the batsmen continued to go for their shots. At the halfway stage the score was 75-2 which was about the same as the Village score and the skipper knew that the game was in the balance and that he needed some wickets. Unfortunately for Frogmore in the 19th over their number 4 batsmen went off with cramp before their number 1 batsmen went off with an injury in the 25th over and then Dan picked up his wicket bowling the number 6 for 0 in the same over. The next over saw Chalky pick up the first of his wickets courtesy of a good catch by Mohamed Salahudeen as the score was 105-4 off 26 overs and then in the 28th over he took his other thanks to another good catch this time by the skipper. Matt Hawkes (1-10) and George Leggett then replaced Dan and Chalky and in his first over back and with the number 4 batsmen back on the field, George bowled him to leave the score 126-6 off 30 overs. His 2nd over also brought about a wicket as the number 9 edged to Lawrence behind the stumps before Hawkesy's 3rd over got him a wicket thanks to a slower ball which again was nicked behind for Loz to catch. At 135-8 and with 5 overs left and with the number 1 batsmen looking as though he would not come back out to bat, the Village knew if they could take another wicket they would win the game. Both the number 7 and number 11 looked as though they were going to batten down the hatches so the skipper decided to put the slower bowlers on to try and entice the batsmen. George Downes (0-4) and Kudzi Makopa (0-4) had no joy and Chalky could not create a chance in the last over as the reply ended on 145-8.

An excellent all round performance with both bat and ball which deserved a victory but it may have been different had 2 of the Frogmore batsmen not got injured when they were looking good. Lawrence Bird played a great innings to stay in but it was Hawkesy who stole the headlines with his impressive knock which again deserved more. The bowlers all bowled well with everyone chipping in with wickets but the game will be remembered for almost moments, as first Hawkesy was tantalising close to his maiden ton and the Village were 1 wicket away from what would have been an excellent win against a team in the top 4.