Leisure chalked up a massive 78-run victory in an 18 over bash against a new-ish looking Elmbridge (well, two decent players we hadnt seen before).
Stand-in skipper Rick won the toss and sent in Nobby and Jim to face Elmbridge's new opening bowler. Long steppy strides in and a nippy action were however no match for our Scottish opening duo, not for 5 balls anyway until Nobby departed (4) after one smart boundary. Enter Swainy, who put his recent mixed form to one side and proceeded to hit a 19 ball 50 in a classy 61 - though substitute fielder Joe managed to drop him at deep mid wicket quite early on while having a fielding nightmare, in no way encouraged whatsoever by the near prximity of the watching Leisure players.
Leisure wickets fell regularly at the other end (Jim 10, Don juan (1), Adam (14), Ash (4), but just as the score had been stagnating around the 13th over, Swainy's eventual demise saw Wendel enter the fray at number 8. We then saw a blistering 50 run partnership with Chris Biccie (8) putting the Elmbridge bowlers to the sword, ably supported by Big W (just the 42, several 6s, one out the ground) before both fell, Wendel off the last ball but not before Joe (1 n.o.) gave us a hint of his forthcoming contribution.
Their skipper Andy 'Noddy' Holder the pick of their bowlers with three wickets from his loopy leggies and on a hat trick, which Wendel saw off. No need for the last wicket specialist batting services of Mike nor Rick in Leisure's intimidating but maybe gettable 148 - 7 on a good batting pitch with a lightning outfield.
However, before we knew it, Chris and Joe ripped through the Elmbridge top order, which we've seen hit a few before. Unaccustomed to two slips and a gully, Chris nonetheless bowled a set of beauties for practically nothing, until 4 overthrows from a Wendle hit-the-stumps attempt induced a cry from Chris of "good try mate, bad luck" (some said that he said "fat cock" but they must have got that wrong) and a 4 off his last ball rendered his figures as a shocking 13 - 2 off 4 overs, catches courtesy of Adam and, er, Nobby. Joe, in the meantime, sent down his speciality of wide leg side, wide off side, BANG to bag the loud danger man, Audrey - who is rapidly becoming Joe's bunny - thanks to a decent catch from Swainy and with one caught by Biccie fielding on the 45 behind the wicket, Joe's three overs also resulted in 13 - 2.
Don bowled a maiden. There appears to be no way of saying this without sounding surprised so maybe it works better written down. Two wicketless overs but for just 5 runs from The Don, while Ash joined in on the act with two wickets. While a couple of classic Nobby floater overs went without reward (the first of which without wides either, amazing its perpetrator), this set up 'Striker' Jim of the glen, who terrorised Elmbridge's lower middle order with his first two overs of the season - and two wickets to boot (a smart low catch from Wendel and Mike joining in with a stumping) to make a watching son proud. We thought we had seen it all, but then Wendel got pinged a bit in the penultimate over from their new batsman, who hit 41, before he got him with the last ball - a 'spectacular' catch at long off from Joe, perfecting the Nobby art of rolling backwards and falling over, then holding the ball aloft - thus rubbing it in somewhat given his rather mixed fielding performance helping Elmbridge when they were short, something the opposition gently commented upon from time to time.
That just left bully Rick to take the last over and bowl 4 balls to their last man, batting with a runner. Remarkably, he was one of just two who hit the stumps for his wicket (Ash's full toss being the other), as Elmbridge fell to 70 all out. 7 catches (hey, what field placings skip!) and a stumping, not really any drops - everyone wondering where Paul was - capping a strong performance all round.
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