Penn Street vs Octopus

Penn Street 175-7 (P. Jupp 89*; Nicholas 4-30) beat Octopus 143-9 (Stu 41; P. Goodchild 4-18) by 32 runs

Its James Bond season on Sky and how relevant for Penn Street to welcome Octopus (y) for a 40 over contest on a moist wicket. Will it be runs galore…….or even Pussy Galore……..time would only tell.

Skipper for the day Nick Loftus decided to bat and Penn Street got off to a Thunderbolt start with Chris Fletcher playing a couple of powerful booming drives. Juppy held the fort steady and hit the loose ball for 4 and was dropped on 7 playing a filthy leg glance. Was it sighs of relief from the PSCC batters waiting to come or a sigh of bye bye batting cup?? It was to prove a costly drop. Soon after, Fletch miscalculated a pull shot and was caught for 32 and this prompted Octopus to start digging in and bowling a very tight line. Mr G was in at number 3 and could easily have been mistaken for Bob Fryer as from a distance a curly mop was developing on his head. Mr G who has been in great form this year managed to get a thick outside edge to gully and dismissed for 3. The real James Bond strolled in at number 4 and played two beautiful pull shots (he is good at the pull J) before getting a leading edge for 10. The pitch was proving difficult to read as was the Octopus bowlers who carried on plugging away. This dedication got results and Penn Street lost wickets at regular intervals to put even more pressure on Juppy to hold his end up (no problem there)and get us to at least 150 which was agreed to be a good score before play started. Juppy kept going and played the strike well with a super pumped up Dolph Lundgren lookalike Tom Curtis, who kept running short on the singles and twos. WAKE UP TOM!! Juppy opened up (finally!) with 4 overs and remaining and managed to get the PSCC score up to a very pleasing 175 – He was the man with the Golden Gun and ended up on 89 not out.

Paul Goodchild was licking his lips at the prospect of bowling on this damp wicket and Jaws obliged with a fantastic spell of bowling to take 4 wickets. Paul Goodchild needs a special mention for this dedication and commitment to PSCC. A lifer he walks miles through the woods to ensure he can play and then in some instances gets the night bus home. Take a bow Goody – you are a legend. Great captaincy from Nick Loftus enabled Penn Street to make a patient in road when Nick bowled Octopus Mike for 19 and Matt Bannister got skipper Stu for 41. A great catch by young Jack Slade really made this a great Penn Street Performance. Two wins for the weekend and the a great finish in the bar was a great end to a weekend of winning cricket for the mighty Street – Live and Let Die!!

Man of the match - P.Jupp