Rotherham Phoenix 293-4, Sheffield Collegiate 240odd-7. Hate to say it lads, but catches win matches.Like most other SCCC teams over the weekend, we lost the toss and were asked to field in the hot cauldron that Phoenix presented. After applying all the necessary lotions, Filth and Bully begun. Filth bowled pretty well, taking an early wicket and beating the bat a number of times. Bully on the other hand didn t, and continued to bowl a flurry of full tosses that their left-handed opener loved putting away. When he did land one, the leftie spooned one to square leg that Bellamy took&&..and then dropped. A crucial miss. After Bully was withdrawn, T came on and started promisingly, with a maiden. However, all good things come to an end and their left hander continued his assault, bludgeoning his way to 50 in no time. Their number 3 was also beginning to find the middle of the bat, and after 20 overs, they were 120-1. Ouch.

Enter Batts and Riaz, who in the circumstances bowled very well in containing them in comparison to how they had started. Batts bowled their left hander (83) with a pearler, and this brought their SA to the crease. It was at this point when our captain forgot to put himself back into slip, and 3rd ball up, an edge from the SA went very wide of Rootie, and although he flung himself to the ball; he could only Alan Parry it around the post. Stewie cursed. The SA did not look in danger again, apart from when he swept one from Riaz on to his ear, and he quickly brought up his 50 too. Number 3 also brought up his 50, in slightly more time than the others, before he was well C&B by Riaz. Longers came and went, but not before he was despatched for a number of big 6 s into the garden that ballboy Richards fielded. Riaz switched ends, and quickly ended the innings of his compatriot for around 60. Batts replaced Riaz at the other end, and he too found himself at the other end of treatment from another left hander who came in and hit the ball hard. He also brought up his 50 quickly, and to cut a long story short (and it was a very long story), they got 293-4.

Tea was pretty good to be fair, unfortunately the reading of the scorebook wasn t.

Root and Bremond opened the innings, and after a couple of nice shots the former was caught behind. Stewie came to the crease, and both he and Noel set about trying to chase down this target. Unlike our team, in the first 15 overs of our innings they did not bowl many bad balls and therefore we were already behind the run rate early. Noel (15) was ran out by Stewie, brining Riaz to the crease. Stewie was looking good, and the pair of them were beginning to find gaps with both boundaries and singles. Unfortunately, (for the 2nd week running I hear!), Stewie (40) missed a straight one and when Riaz (20odd) soon followed the writing could well have been on the wall. 120ish-4. Filth and Batts batted well, until the Filthy (20odd) one was caught on the boundary. Looper (jnr) came in and played some nice shots, before playing an awful one for a well crafted 20 odd again. Bellamy came in and he too continued the trend, as 75% of their score became our new target. Unfortunately for the strawberry blond, he tried one too many shots and was caught at slip. This brought Bully to the crease, with the score on 218-7. Batts got the necessary one, and also brought up his 50 at the end of the game although he calculated he had scored 55*. It made him smile anyway.

Post mortem:

For the 2nd time in 2 weeks we have scored over 240 runs and lost the game, which points towards one thing; the bowling. We really must improve as a team, and start bowling one side of the wicket. It didn t help with every single one of their batsmen being dropped, so the fielders must also share some of the responsibility. However, definite room for improvement. Wath at home next week.