Playing for the 3rd Team is never a dull experience. If you like the excitement of four consecutive years of promotion and relegation, then this is the place to be!
Fortunately, three of those years have been promotions, including the current one. Following our relegation the previous year, the team fought hard all season long and finished a commendable 3rd place. If the weather had allowed us to play more game against lower-placed sides, this position may even have been bettered.
(Yes, above all things, even our promotion, this season will be remembered for the constant rain and more games called off than Michael Brogan can remember in the history of the club.)
Without doubt, our bowling was key in this season's winning run. All bowlers, young and old, bowled with much greater consistency than the season before. We defended unimpressive totals on a number of occasions, and still came out on top. Excellent work from Mike, Jake, Clark Snr., Clark Jnr., Craig and Micky.
The batting was generally disappointing. It is true that in such a wet summer wickets were at times bowler-friendly, and The Green was a disgrace for a couple of games. However, most frontline batsmen were still consistently below par. The exceptions were Tom and Olly. Tom has a sound technique and a range of attacking shots. He will, I predict, become 1st Team opening bat. Without Olly's massive contribution, we would not have won promotion. His application and temperament were a lesson for our younger players.
After the bowling, the other key element in our success was the team spirit. Most matches were hard-fought and we needed to show a lot of character to convert all but one of them into wins. But in fighting so hard, we never forgot to have a laugh along the way.
There was only one game (Curdridge) when we let ourselves down with a miserable performance in all departments, including probably the skipper's decision to bat first on a wicket which Hazel mistook for her allotment!
In conclusion, I would like to thank the unsung heroes who devote their time and expertise to us. Thanks Dan for turning out every match and scoring for us. Thanks Gooders for umpiring most of the season when injury forced you into early retirement. Finally, thanks to Jake for finally providing a club tea.
