Wivenhoe = No dice

For the second time in just a few weeks we found ourselves underneath a set of grey and rainy skies. There was to be no play at all in our home fixture with fellow title challengers Wivenhoe. Just like when we were scheduled to play Browns at Drapers a few weeks earlier the game was abandoned without a ball being bowled. It was normal to lose about two games a year to bad weather but to have them both as home games and this early in the season was bad luck. For me personally it meant I wouldn’t play a home game until 10th June! For us the rain-off meant a trip to Colchester and some ten pin bowling, fried food and an early start to the beers! It was definitely a disadvantage that our only meeting with Wivenhoe would be at their ground where we would undoubtedly face a dry turning wicket later in the season that would suit their ex-Essex and Suffolk spinner, Andrew Golding, who would get a fair number of his 28 wickets at home (at an average of 13) that season. As it was we’d started well and it was the end of May, with 3 wins from 3 games we were top of the league. It was a surprise to us but we were doing well as we had this 100% record despite - losing all 3 tosses - not have bowled out the opposition in any of the games - never having an unchanged team - our skipper carrying an injury, from a dropped catch in game 2, that required him to have the heart of a lion to continue playing - conceding almost 20 extras per game in the field The positive aspects of our games were that - Travaskis was leading the attack with a fair amount of conviction - Dubbers looked like an authentic number 3 and had chalked up two 50’s in three digs. He had clearly benefited from spending the winter down under...The Gallipoli Club and Kings Court seemed to have done wonders for his game - Elmo had runs and wickets under his belt - Rubber and Legend had both shown good control with the ball - We had already hit 15 maximums and 56 boundary fours in our 3 innings so our batters were capable of setting / chasing big totals Our top 5 batters were 144 = Elmo 124 = Dubbers 108 = Man 91 = Cook 48 = Spaggs Our top 5 bowlers were 8 = Travaskis 5 = Legend & Elmo 4 = Rubber 1= Jap & Spaggs Next up we faced a trip to Exning, I think for the first time ever. Their team included the 3 Catley brothers who were all batsmen for Suffolk so we knew we would be in for a tough test. Our side was to change again as Spaggs who had been nursing a bruised digit for a couple of weeks had decided he needed to rest for a while so it could heal. Not for the first time in my Maldon career I would be “acting captain” whilst Spaggs sat on the sidelines. The four changes for this week would see In - Damian “Man” Westwood - a first outing of the season for Steven “Rocket” Rudd - Tom “Rare” Hawkridge - Neal “Jap” Harrington Out - Rob “Spaggs” Barber - David “Arkle” Randall - Keith Bannister - James Ellis Dubbers was earmarked to open the batting and Rubber would jump from #8 to #3 off the back of his enterprising 24 at Sudbury. Goz would go up the order to #4 from #7 (not able to fathom this one as he’d managed 14 runs in 3 digs but I must have had a theory) and Travis who had only 18 runs to his name would head in the other direction. Hopefully we could find enough runs to shape a 3rd away win in a row and keep the unbeaten run going.