Nassington Sunday 2nds were under strength for the visit of league high fliers Orton Park with no keeper and our left arm spinner taken by the 1st XI. But we are nothing if not optimistic and having lost the toss and forced to field, we did not resort to hand wringing and head shaking. We attacked by defending the straight boundaries against their hard hitting opener and Hassnain and Yasser bowled a really good first 15 overs. But after restricting their scoring and taking regular wickets, 150 seemed a likely total. We reckoned without their number 6 who stood tall and smacked nearly everything we bowled for 4, making 82 from 50 balls until a genius bowling change brought Faiz on to baffle and confuse him first ball and bowl him without playing a shot. Dave (I can’t bowl) Lovelock took 5 for 38 in 7 overs as Orton Park finished on 237 all out in 41 overs as Bob (tendercalf) took a stunning caught and bowled.

The batsmen set about the task of chasing such a big score with skill and patience. Tricky set the tone with a well struck 38 before missing a straight one. Asif ignored the taunts of his team mates to score a patient 59* while Yogi and Hass injected a bit of urgency into the innings with quick fire 25 and 17 knocks. When Dave ( I’m too tired to bat) Lovelock tottered to the crease with over 100 still needed and only an old git, a broken finger and 3 non-batsmen to come, things were not that promising. A brilliant partnership between Asif and Dave 57* saw us home with 2 and a half overs to spare. Thanks Orton for not using all your overs and for dropping a few catches.

Dick of the Day to the skipper again for choosing to bat at 7 and getting pad rash, following an even more lunatic decision to keep wicket!

20 points in the bag though and off to Bourne next week to play the bottom team in the league.