Ragley bury The Fossils as Biddle bullies the pensioners

After losing the toss and surprisingly being asked to field, the pace attack of Simon and George contained the early order, reducing them to 27 for 3 in the 12th over, good catches by Lewis, Ollie and Russell standing behind the stumps. Chris replaced his brother and continued to tie down the batsmen, while Simon bowled out to finish with 2 for 6 off 8 overs, including 4 maidens; he also beat the bat on a number of occasions and 2 of the runs were disputable wides! On came the skipper from the pavilion end and I was getting some turn (or help from the slope) but a wide long hop - that Russell said turned- caught an outside edge and Simon took a good catch at cover point. Lewis then snaffled another good catch off a better ball , to leave them at 36 for 5 off 17. Enter the danger man, who proceeded to smite boundaries until the ball of the season drifted away before turning to hit off stump - 73 for 6 in the 25th. A good run out by Chris preceded Oscar also using the slope to claim 2 wickets with seam bowling, including another good catch by Russell; he had dropped one off Chris though! Lewis bowled tidily and Ollie less so until Ian finally got 2 overs at the end and managed to avoid decapitating anyone. 113 for 9, an eminently gettable total.
After a cake laden tea, courtesy of Mrs Silvey and my birthday being yesterday - when I celebrated my 49th for the 14th year - Ian and the Panther strode out to knock off the modest total. Ian started slowly, defending the good ball and punishing the bad - now that sounds like a sensible strategy - and after Dave departed for 12, put on 54 with Lewis before the latter was given run out, having hit the ball to the fielder who could stop it and throw. James Hillman initially showed some good footwork but then danced down the track and was stumped, before Oscar found out that cricket can be cruel as well as glorious - 72 for 1 had gone to 74 for 4. Resisting the temptation to come in and slow the run rate down, I let Chris Hillman show great maturity to see us home, after Ian was called in, having completed a sound 50. Ollie defended carefully to allow Chris to knock the winning runs and finish on 26 not out in the 35th over. A comfortable victory and we will probably play them at least 5 times next season, as I continue to audition for a place in their team!