Ley Hill 3rds v Datchet 4ths (at Bellingdon) on Saturday 26 May 

There’s never a dull moment in running the 3^rd team and after the excitement last week of unveiling the ‘new Bellingdon’ this week’s trauma was more familiar, namely uncertainty over the identity of our opposition and how many players will the 1sts and/or 2nds nick? 

As last year, and as predicted by Paul Green last week, OMTs, our scheduled opponents, cried off on Wednesday afternoon. For about 10 minutes Tom Holman had found us an away game at Berkhamsted (very nice too!) but somewhere along the line they must have received a better offer and, at the second attempt, out of the ‘Conference hat’ came Datchet. Well done Tom, a fixture! 

Having spent Saturday morning shopping for and preparing teas (and of course avoiding the phone in case of further top team requests on our XI, I foolishly took a call from Datchet’s captain just before 1pm. They were down to 8 players (no problem with the batting apparently, or the bowling as it turned out(!) but….any chance of a fielder or two)? I thought I’d heard all the excuses before but this was a new one….two of their players were paramedics and en route had been called away to a major incident and were extremely unlikely to return. 

So this was suddenly my problem! Fortunately we had plenty of willing juniors around this week and a big thank you (on behalf of Datchet) to Alex Batt, Alex Partington and Peter Crichton who all made encouraging debuts for their new club! Also to nine year old Archie Thompson for bringing our ranks back to 11. So of the 22 that eventually took the field 14 were from the Hill!!  

After putting the opposition in on what appeared to be another Bellingdon track with something in it for Hill’s bowlers, Datchet’s openers proceeded to thump boundaries to all parts, and after 20 minutes or so two balls had already been swallowed up by the nettles etc surrounding the ground. These were very big lads who only seemed interested in 4s and 6s. Steve Bell eventually found a shooter to remove one and Denis dismissed their equally large number 3 but skipper Walter needed to resort to the trusted trick of a drinks break for Terry Rothwell to bowl the main hitter first ball thereafter. 

Enter stage left the Thompson boys, Lewis (13) and Archie (9) who between them then cleaned up the remainder of the innings, helped by some excellent catching. Lewis took 5 for 21, including Datchet’s South African all rounder who, like one of the openers (and Lewis for that matter), appeared to be far too talented for this level of cricket. Between them these two batsmen plundered 102 of Datchet’s all out total of 149 and were effectively the difference between the two sides.  

Meanwhile at the other end Archie was setting a club record, surely, by being the youngest bowler to take senior wickets. He finished with 2 for 0!! 

The clatter of wickets meant we could start our reply before tea, and after a couple of lusty blows Leigh Dale and Terry Rothwell (minus any lusty blows) found their afternoons over by 4.30! The signs were ominous, and the South African all rounder in particular was more than a handful on Bellingdon’s track. As it turned out, he wasn’t the only one and Bell, Martin, Walter, Kay and McCarthy quickly followed with an interesting collection of dismissals as Datchet switched their bowlers around.    

But vice-captain Dave Mortimer, batting at 9 in his first match of the season, together with none other than Archie then put together a hugely entertaining last wicket stand, the biggest of the innings (about 30) before Peter Crichton picked up Archie’s wicket with his first ball and Hill were out for 88 with Mortimer a valiant 26 not out. 

An entertaining afternoon, and something tells me young Lewis (and Archie for that matter) will soon be heading for higher teams too! 

I wonder what surprises next week will bring?