St James Seniors

Some late summer sunshine at St James’s & Montefiore for this highly anticipated annual fixture on a curiously “burnt” looking square. Many of the Martlets O40s team have been regulars this year and this practice was put into good effect as we batted first and went about our business with purpose. Both Tom Whyte and Dave Mann were retired at 40 to come back in and close our innings undefeated at 170 after 35 overs, which we felt was a “par” score on a good bowling track.  During the innings there were some glorious drives, most notably from Degsy, returning after a few weeks rest and recuperation, and some lusty running for singles, or in some cases perhaps more of a hasty scuttle. Overall, a good batting performance against some effective bowling.

Disappointingly there was no tea offered so we made ourselves mugs of tea and gathered around Dave Christmas’s well organised tupperware container mulling over the benefits of planning ahead.

As is correct for a team with such a “roll-up our sleeves and get stuck in” attitude, most of us had a bowl and enjoyed the bounce and pace of the wicket. Pick of the bowlers was Jeremy McGahan who picked up three good wickets in his first four overs and proved very difficult to score off.  Unfortunately our lack of catching practice in our previous matches this year was all too apparent and the old adage “catches win matches” was very much on our minds as their batsmen got the upper hand and steered the opposition to a comfortable win with 5 overs to spare.

This was a very enjoyable match as we are always made to feel very welcome at SJM and look forward to returning next year.