Refreshers v Castle Rising

Following a very pleasant (if somewhat late and over-indulgent) evening at the Rose and Crown in Snettisham, the Refreshers (Anu Mohindru, Richard Saunders, Sam Burrett, Martin Pascoe, David Alexander, Richard Saunders, Andy Gardner, Jacob Sandelson, Richard Warlow, John Maynard and James Skelton) arrived to play Castle Rising in Norfolk on Sunday 30 April 2017. The start was 11.30am and given the previous evening’s activities most were keen not to bat first. But to everyone’s dismay we ended up doing precisely that on Anu Mohindru’s debut as the new Club Captain.

As it transpired, batting turned out not to be that bad a decision. James Skelton and David Alexander put on 49 for the first wicket. Then, after the swift loss of Chris Bell (who it has to be recorded was bowled by full toss delivered by a 13 year old), Sam Burrett and Richard Warlow set about giving the Refreshers a decent score. Sam went for 27, but Warlow carried on in the company of Andy Gardner, who was next to go for a very elegant 31. Warlow then steadily progressed to 67 not out when we declared at 3.15pm with a score of 229 for 5 immediately upon Richard Saunders being run out for a quick-fire 25 (and with the next man in, the captain, having already taken off his pads).

When it came to bowling, we did pretty well. The same cannot be said for the catching. Whilst we managed to bowl Castle Rising out for 144 (winning by 85 runs), at least 7 or 8 catches were put down, some of them being catches which many would describe as being in the relatively easy class. Luckily the bowlers worked out that they either had to hit the sticks or take catches off their own bowling. As a result Castle Rising were dismissed just before the 20 overs started at 6pm with John Maynard taking 3-13, Anu Mohindru 2-7 (the first of which broke Castle Rising’s crucial fifth wicket partnership of 70 plus), Chris Bell 2-38, Richard Saunders 1-14 and the indomitable Richard Warlow, whose game it plainly was, taking 2-2.
After the game most retired back to the Rose and Crown where we enjoyed the usual full roast dinner etc with everyone being very pleased with themselves for putting in not a bad day’s work. Always good to start the season with a win.