Penn Street vs Twyford and Ruscombe

Twyford and Ruscombe 65-10 (P. Woodman 27; P. Goodchild 3-15, J. Mendy 3-18) beaten by Penn Street 68-2 (P. Jupp 48*, O. Woodbridge 2-23) by 8 wickets

After several unseasonably dry weeks, the thunderstorms came on Saturday night and soaked the bone-hard pitch. By Sunday lunchtime, the sun was out again, the wind was blowing, the pitch was moist on top but hard below, like an unsuccessful Victoria sponge. Matt Bannister won the toss and thought for less than a second before putting Twyford and Ruscombe in to bat.

Paul Goodchild and Jack Mendy’s eyes lit up as the first balls stopped, spat, lunged at the batsmen’s throats. Rob Sutherland called for his lid. It is one thing, however, to have the pitch of one’s dreams – another to get the batsmen out. No problem for Jack, as he sent the opening batsman’s stumps cartwheeling. Then Goody joined in, ripping out the rest of the top of the batting order, with the exception of opener P. Woodman who was holding the innings together. A change in approach from Matt, and spin was introduced which quickly did the trick. By this time Tyler had joined the party, with the assistance of an astonishing leg-side catch from wicketkeeper Mark Gloyens. A potential champagne moment? Sensing blood, and reluctant to let the opposition off the hook as we had done the previous week, Matt brought back Jack who quickly delivered the coup de grace. 65 all out.

However, the job was only half done. Fortunately once tea had been taken the sun and wind has extinguished the demons from the pitch, and it simply played slowly. Peter Jupp exploded out the blocks as if he had left his toast under the grill. The target of 68 runs was achieved in a quite remarkable 7.2 overs, with Pete scoring 48 off very few balls indeed.

So we finally got our first win since July 2010. The monkey had not just been shooed off our back, but had been sent packing with a one-way ticket to darkest Peru. But for all Juppy’s heroics with the bat, it was the bowlers who had set up the win. For his demolition of the top order, and hostile bowling of the highest calibre, Man of the Match was Paul Goodchild.

Man of the Match: P. Goodchild