Grey’s Green Tight Draw

Forget scoring 1000 runs in may – we did not bowl a ball in anger before 2nd June this season as the shocking weather continued to take its toll. So finally it was a relief and a pleasure to turn out against one of our hardy perennials, Grey’s Green, just beyond Henley on Thames. Charlie Hale won the toss and put them in; the bowlers (Saunders, Cayford, Haywood, Hale and Sells) kept it pretty tight with some excellent catching from Haywood, Sells and Saunders in particular. Michael Edwards was superb behind the stumps and we were happy enough with their teatime score of 198 for 6. After tea we did not really do ourselves justice and slumped to 65 for 5 for no very good reason apart from rusty shot selection and a lack of focus. Then Jonathan Cohen joined Haywood and shared a “scintillating” (his words!) stand of 75 in 12 overs before Cohen perished. Haywood followed soon after on 71 whereupon defeat looked a possibility until Sells and Hornby steered us to safety with some stubborn defending. An exciting finale to our first game and an enjoyable beer afterwards.