Everyone's a Pinner baby (except when it's a draw)

2nd XI vs. Pinner (Away)

Ah, Pinner. Park pitch of dreams, where boundaries disappear down the steepest of slopes, where fielders trip on ruts made by dough-nutting joyriders. Skip won the toss and after the hugely successful batting-first policy against Alexandra Park, opted to bat first again. Fortunately, this time the batsmen turned up.

Mark and Kamlesh bristled with intent but found the going a little sticky and fell relatively cheaply. Debutant Chris stroked a couple of glorious fours and was skittled. Wasif was skittled. 4 down and not much to show. But Keith at the other end had been keeping his powder dry and finding his perfect partner in Naggers, he began building the biggest partnership of the season. Keith started as the aggressor, Naggers the mute apprentice. But after a drinks break, during which Keith realised his fags had been stolen from the park bench and sent Sri to the garage to buy some more, the roles were reversed and Nags opened his shoulders and showed his class. He fell short of the ton though and was later found sulking in the changing room. Mark asked how much the rest of the team would give him to declare with Keith on 99, but since we value the skip's life we kept our pockets closed and the ton duly arrived before close. Some late biffing from Kevin and George brought the total to a very healthy 254-6 from 50 overs. [Keith 104*, Naggers 78]

Throughout our innings the police had been searching for a missing nonagenarian. He didn't know who or where he was and had been separated from his wife. They looked for him in the allotments, in the woods, down by the disused pavillion. No sign. They should also have been looking for the CECC 2nd XI seamers. James, Wasif and Chris all bowled like brain-addled pensioners, pitching too short, too wide or too slowly and the chase looked on for some time before Sri and George stemmed the flow with some, initially loose, but ultimately tight bowling - both picking up 4 wickets. The match ebbed and flowed, all results (bar the losing draw) possible right until the final over which Sri bowled under immense pressure. After the first two tense deliveries, Pinner realised it was too risky, 8 down, to go for the win and blocked the last 4 balls - CECC securing 4 points for the winning draw.

Against Alexandra Park the batting had failed and left a task too big for the fragile bowling. This time the batting clicked and set up a match-winning opportunity. Unfortunately, the seamers let the opportunity go and it was the spinners that saved the game. A good experience we all agreed - but 6 points probably dropped.