OG 1st XI travelled the long and winding road to Mellor at the weekend, to face a potential banana skin in their push for promotion.
This game saw the debut of Lawty behind the stumps, and the return of Declan now that the waters had subsided.....okay thats the last word on that subject, just let it be.
Walking out to the square Andy King was approached by what appeared to be the Mellor groundsman, who whispered "do you want to know a secret? it's not been rolled all week !". Armed with this knowledge, and after winning the toss, Andy invited Mellor to take first knock.
Openers Andy King and Rob Adderley both started brightly, and it was a case of hello, goodbye, for the Mellor skipper as he was bowled in Rob's first over for 0.
Rob continued to pose problems for the Mellor batsmen and went onto remove the other opener and their number 3 in quick succession to leave Mellor struggling.
At the other end, Andy was beating the bat regularly but with no luck
and in the end, after 10 wicketless overs for 23 runs, he took himself off and
scanned the field for a replacement. Lenny came over and pleaded to his skipper
"please, please me", and the decision was made.
Rob was also replaced after claiming 3 for 30, and to the dismay of the Mellor faithful, the league's most frugal bowler stepped up to the mark.
Eyrey proceeded to bowl a miserly spell of 6 overs, claiming 6 wickets in the process and only conceding 12 runs. At this rate it won't be long before Paul claims the prize for the league bowling average.
Lenny claimed the other wicket to leave Mellor all out for 83 and OG sensing a quick finish, mindful of the gathering clouds.
Promoted to open the batting Jamie Cannon had the look of a man determined to score some runs, and he batted sensibly against the Mellor attack, which was causing problems early on.
Eyrey, possibly relaxed after his 6 fer, went after a Smith delivery which wasn't quite there, and skied one to become Mellor's first wicket of the day. George White strode out to join JC and the pair appeared settled and able to knock off the necessary runs before Osama nicked one behind to leave OG 30 for 2.
No more wickets could fall if OG were to gain the 21 points on offer, and therefore everyone was wondering how Macca would bat at number 4. Would he be the Macca we have seen all season, hitting the ball here, there and everywhere? or would he bat sensibly to ensure we didn't drop the extra batting point...........................
Mikey Parker walked out to bat at number 5
Jamie (36no) continued to look solid and scored at every opportunity to take OG above 50 and towards their target for victory.
Mikey was keen to get the strike and at one point JC had to scream "get back" as Mikey was almost run out attempting a quick single.
Hovis started to look good too, and the runs started to flow, and with plenty of overs remaining it was left to young Mikey (24 no) to loft a straight six to win the game and secure 20 points for OG.
A day in the life of OG 1st team........ not a particularly difficult test but certainly a lesson to be learnt with regards to dropped points
Lets hope at the end of the season that we dont look back at yesterday and rue the points which have slipped through our fingers.
Bigger tests to come this weekend ! Bring it on .....