Well, the old adage of Catches win Matches never seemed more apt.

Today saw the lower junior cup match between a third team boasting such tremble inducing players as “Stretch” and “Stye”  take on an Islesham team fresh from a win against the Milton Firsts the day before.

Containing only 3 players from their victory the day before, it seemed like it might be a good match. Unfortunately due to some sort of cock up by the umpire (who it appears didn’t want to do our game) we had no umpire leaving all the crucial cup decisions to the lovely young lads of Isleham

Pecky lost the toss (I assume…. ) and Milton were put into the field in the glorious summers day with such scorching temperatures as 23°C

A breakthrough was swift, with the first wicket falling at a score of 2-1. Unfortunately from then on it fell apart in the field. With the new batsmen in, a number of opportunities went begging due to dropped catches by Dizz in slips, Peck Sr and various other players. Having been dropped at 4 or 5 runs the batsmen went on to get 90 odd runs with Isleham ending up at 254 -4 off the 40 overs.

The fielding was comical at times with a number of misfields, 14 dropped catches and general sluggishness mostly induced by heat exhaustion but there were some exception fielding work too, including a catch by Rig behind the stumps, and a low take back at Liam for a Caught and bowled

Facing a daunting total to chase, Milton set about building a concerted effort. Opening the batting was Chris Day with Ian Coston. Chris day, playing in his typical style went for a big hit to open the scoring, unfortunately finding a man at Cover who took a stunning catch (that was technically a drop due to landing on the ball from the dive) to claim the wicket. Number 3 was Dizz, who openened his account with some stylish batting and dispatching of poor balls. Unfortunately he played a beautiful sweep shot that managed to find the one 13 year old lad positioned behind square, who took a great catch to remove Dizz. The next partnership of Rig and Ian build the innings solidly to approximately the 140 mark, with 50’s for both before Rig was dismissed. A debut performance from Stretch saw him making a few excellent shots to earn his first runs in MCC colours including a delicious 4 for the first runs saw Milton ahead of the run rate at the 30 over mark.  Unfortunately this is where it to fall apart for Milton, with some sluggish batting for a couple overs from Bumble forcing him into shots and getting a few runs before missing a Yorker then Pecky dismissed cheaply and suddenly Milton were on the back foot.  Requiring 50 odd runs off the last 7 overs , Alex and Will day made a small dent batting together, and Steve Dye and Bill Lyons also contributing but ultimately they were up against it and Milton fell short.

Full Scorecard at http://miltoncambs.play-cricket.com/view_results_details?id=11969324

My man of the Match goes to Ian Coston – for not dropping any catches (bit hard when you are doing Deep Fine Leg both ends due to injury) and for getting a good half ton batting.

The full list of dropped catches below 😉 : Pecky 3 , Rig 3.5, Chris Day 2 , Liam 2, Steve Dye 1.5. Bumble 1 Stretch 1? (think it is correct, i’m sure i’ll be told if not)

(report by Bumble)