Where do I start on what was a roller-coaster of a season on and off the pitch! First of all I'm going to congratulate the 3rd team for a second promotion in 2 years and as champions this year. Which I think is just a superb achievement for the team and Paul, as he has managed to build not just a side, but a team that wants to play for each other and have enjoyed being part of the team and sharing in every success. Well to the 2nd's. We also achieved a 2nd promotion in 2 years, which is a huge achievement, as we have seen other teams which have breezed past the 2nd's in other leagues struggle to make any impression in this league. I have to congratulate every player who turned up and played, as they all helped to achieve promotion.
This all happened whilst we lost a big part of the 2nd team in Steve Joyce, a friend and my little bro, I just hope he is proud to see the side gain promotion.
On the playing front I think this season was full of surprises. Started off with 4 wins, on paper big wins, but our inability to bowl sides out cost us quite a few bonus points and proved to be our biggest problem for most of the season. Then we turn up to play Vospers and just didn't perform. We then lost 3 in a row and almost ended our season, we couldn't afford anymore losses. After that we went unbeaten until the end of the season. It came down to the last 3 weeks of the season and sitting in 2nd place 3 points ahead of 3rd place. We went to Ampfield needing a big win. We ended up bowling them out for 174. 50 runs more than they should have got, but until M Quinn come on we wasn't going to bowl them out(4-0-2.2). A target we started to chase after a loss of a couple of early wickets quite well and at drinks we where 100-3. Then a big collapse and we were 38 runs behind with only 2 wickets left. It left R Evans who hadn't played all year and T Stansmore 3 years, left in and as I paced up and down I watched probably the most gutsiest innings I have seen. They knocked off the runs. We pick up the 24 max points. It rained the next week. Last game of the season, we must win and get a min 22 points. We get the score up over 200 thanks to some late big hitting by S Bayliss and J Weeks. We start off well trying to bowl them out with D Ducellier pick up early wickets, but as the innings went on things slowed up. Not in danger of losing we still need a few more wickets, S Roberts kept plugging away and then M Quinn comes on and runs through the bottom order and takes a 5 wicket haul. And the games is over, time to celebrate.
Through out the year there were loads of individual performances. Batting was our strong point. If I could give an award to my player of the year S Bayliss would win hands down, 4 hundreds and a some other big scores. J Weeks was reliable as ever and seemed to be the one who held the middle order together. A Evans hit a hundred and always looked like scoring runs. J Davis came in and scored runs and shared in a 180 opening run partnership with S Bayliss chasing 230 against M/T. The tail would always wag when required and helped set some good targets. N Goodman played for us later in the season and was dangerous with bat and ball, a hundred and a 5 wicket haul some of his highlights.
The bowling was our biggest problem, not being able to bowl sides out. On the plus side S Roberts came back from injury and bowled with good control at some important times, with a bit more luck he would have taken more wickets. K Hammond picked up around 20 odd wickets, although I will say we were just starting to see him bowl at his best and how I thought he should have bowled all season, when he went to the 1st team late in the season. M Quinn picked up 9 important wickets in his 2 games, it was a shame he wasn't around more. M McKeever also played well when he could play scoring runs and taking wickets with medium pace and later in the season spin, picking up a 7 wicket haul at Locks heath. J Humby & D Ducellier bowled OK, but as I'm sure they would admit would have liked more wickets and was more than capable of doing so. S O'Toole came in and bowled some good spells.
I hope the younger players like S O'Toole, C Raddon, G Flower, J Scott and the others keep pushing and performing as I believe I few of them should be 2nd team regulars in the next season or so with places up for grabs, so keep working hard all of you.
I would like to thank Lin for scoring and Alex who had to learn so she could take over after what happened. To everybody who made teas and to the ladies for preparing teas and doing the washing up. Thanks to Ray for umpiring all year, it's never an easy job. To S Roberts, vice captain, who supported me through out the year and especially early on in the season after I talked to him about standing down due to personal problems. Thanks also goes to the committee that makes it possible for us to play. Finally a big Thanks to Andy and everybody that worked on the ground for preparing the best wicket in our league.
