According to the GMTV weather girl (also famed for Dancing on Ice), the 1st July was supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far…..I leave the house in high spirits and up for revenge after recalling our last match against Winford where their 10 year old bowled both Jon and I out. Later that afternoon as the skies turned to a deep grey and clouds loomed overhead I realized that I watched the weather for one reason only….tottie.

We collected ourselves at the Pavilion and did a head count to find we were one short..scratching our heads until Mike appeared from pavilion looking sheepish (my money's on a quick fiddle with the "village blond"). Anyway, Jo lost the toss, so we took to the field. The usual discussion on which bowler should come up or down the uneven field took place and Anth decided to let Kenny Everett (Will) run down the hill. The Winford openers looked fairly assured and set off at a good pace with the odd boundary, mainly from Will's bowling (sorry!). A few close calls but no wickets for our opening bowlers.

Our Jonny then came on with golden arm Ramsey and the wickets started to fall. The opening partnership was broken through some clever bowling and whilst the odd batsman hung around for a while, the run rate was significantly reduced and HOBs starting cutting through the batting order. Jon claimed a wicket and Stu picked up a brace. Both Tom and Ashford bowled well and offered something different on the sloping wicket, claiming two wickets apiece. After 20 overs Winford finished on a peculiar 119 for 7 (although the book clearly had 125 for bowling and 126 for batting!).

HOBs then agreed the line of attack and Messrs Serjeant (M) and Fillingham took to the crease and made a good start with both making boundaries. Mike then fell to a decent catch and Sam was soon to follow by the same arm. I then strode in looking nervous to try and make a stand with Ash. To everyone's surprise including me I stayed there a while much to the frustration of their fast bowler….the cries of "He's still got his L plates on….its all edges could be heard from their fielders as another 4 whistled past their slips. Ash suggested that we would soon have the whole field to aim at as another Winford player was moved to the slips. A good partnership was formed until Ash was cleaned bowled for a very useful 20. Tom then came in and soon after I played a soft shot (ironically an edge!) onto my wickets and walked away with a rye grin scoring 22.

Tom and John then built a useful partnership with Jon hitting our first 6. Tom was cleaned bowled for 14 and Will came in looking to make up for his below par bowling performance (sorry again Will). Unfortunately he decided to whack a great shot destined for boundary to be caught by a fielder who ghosted in by the moonlight. It wasn't Will's day and the Captain came in to join his brother at the crease. A good partnership was again formed (funny considering they hate each other!) with both brothers scoring 14. Despite Jon's wicket falling in the penultimate over, HOBs went on to win in style with Jo smashing the ball for 6 taking his total to 14 while Stuey stood on to admire (on 0).

In all, an enjoyable day and a good victory to keep the HOBs machine on track for an unbeaten 20 over season!