We welcomed Fair Oak to the SCG, they knew they could go top with a win, we knew we could go mid table if we
won. Sticky lost the toss again, but it became irrelevant as, despite the rain, dark clouds, almost cold winds, and the
forecast of showers all day, Fair Oak decided it was a perfect day to bat first. We were all confused by this call but set
about our task with Eben and Olly, one of the first games this year with a bit of pace up front. Eben bowled well with
no reward. We brought on Jamie G and Lilly, both bowled great lines and Jamie was rewarded with a wicket courtesy
of Rimmer holding on at long off. Preston came on and once he'd tested the end of his own toes multiple times, he
realised that bowling at the wickets gets you far more wickets, and once their opener was dispatched, he ran
through 5 of the oppo in his 9 overs. Lilly was keeping it tight at the other end, and with Sticky coming on after her
and grabbing two wickets, we had Fair Oak at 147-8. 150 was the designated target but their skipper had other
ideas, scoring 37 not out and we just couldn't take the last wicket in time. Fair Oak ended on 202-9, which even
though we all agreed was too many considering their position earlier, it was more than chaseable on our pitch.
Lovely tea (thanks to Glenn), and we were discussing how we could possibly throw this away.
The sun came out, life was good. Chasing 202 would be easy on our pitch. As always the 4s like to make hard work of
any given opportunity and this week we decided that it would be better to be 19-3 to give Hawky a better chance of
scoring big, but despite the efforts of everyone else, he declined the offer at 90. Despite Preston and Gearing putting
on nearly 50 the rest of us failed, we went from 134-5 to 181-7, and for once our normally solid tail also decided
today wasn't their day, being bowled out for 191 and a lot of us scratching our heads at how Fair Oak won this
match, as we were in control for a lot of it.
Positives, the bowling was really good. The fielding was good. Postle was good. And Olly still has his teeth after
letting one through the gates.