Easy does it

This year's West Essex League fixtures have thrown up a number of one-sided affairs and this one was no different. A young Stansted Hall side declined the invitation to forego the toss and elected to bat first against us, a decision that I suspected might lead to a short game.

However, Hall's batsmen started solidly, seeing off decent opening spells from Alec Chappell and Chris Millns. Skipper Will Price and Coby Miles couldn't split the opening pair, and it was left to pocket-sized wicket machine Ben Warman to do the business, dismissing opener Pilcher for 16 with the score on 66 in the 14th over. Ben then followed up with the wicket of Bridgewater, and a run out shortly after saw the visitors stumble. Opener Patmore batted sensibly but at a slow rate, and with wickets in hand a more adventurous approach may have been required. Alec Chappell bowled the final over of the innnings, and took another wicket, before Ackron was run out off a wide in a forlorn attempt to push the total on.

101-5 was more than the visitors might have made had we bowled and fielded better, but at least it ensured we had a reasonable total to chase.

The tone for our reply was set when Adam guided the first ball through backward point for four, and it was one-way traffic after that. Both Adam and Alec scored at will, crunching the ball to the boundary with regularity, and the end came in the 15th over as Alec slapped the winning runs through extra-cover to bring up his 50.

Unfortunately a number of our boys didn't manage to bowl or bat in the game; something I try hard to avoid. But in a cricketing mismatch it's sometimes hard to get everyone involved, and so it proved. Nevertheless, we played well enough to win the game and with it, possibly, the league.