Frinton- Home Sweet Home

We went into this game at the top of the league having won our first 4 games of the season and were obviously keen to maintain our position at the top of the league by chalking up win number 5. We made 3 changes to the team that were victorious at Exning a week earlier. Out went Spaggs, Tom Hawkridge and Goz and in their places we welcomed Arkle, James Ellis and for his only appearance of the campaign, Paul Davis. Paul, known as PD even though he often wore a more unfortunate nickname, was usually to be found in the 2nd or 3rd XI although truth be told he’d most likely be found in the bar. He was a popular figure (as well as a figure of fun) and full of tales of his drinking exploits. On the cricket field he was full of effort and endeavour whether chasing a ball to the boundary (and jack-knifing into a ditch as he crashed into the boundary fence) or trying to execute a run out (he attempted this every single time the ball went his way). He was definitely in the side to make up the numbers but we were happy to have him in the team. Frinton weren’t a team we had played a lot over the last few years but we were confident of a win on our home patch. For the second week in a row we won the toss and decided to bat first. It was a sunny day and we expected to make hay not to record the lowest 1st innings score of the season at Drapers. The first 5 overs bought 22 runs but in the next 5 we only added 6 more and at the end of this dry spell we lost Elmo for 14. Our run rate continued to be slow as we limped to 55-2 off 20 overs, we lost Arkle for 10 along the way. This put Dubbers and Rubber at the crease for the first time of the season and they went through the gears to add 60 in the next 10 overs before the former departed for 54, including 8 boundaries. This was the third time in 5 innings that he had reached 50 but this was his top score. He was probably frustrated that he hadn’t yet converted one of these fifties into something bigger. The quicker scoring couldn’t be sustained despite Rubber hoisting a maximum and a few other boundaries. By the end of the 40th over we were 142-4 with Steve Rudd having been dismissed for just 8. The final 10 overs can only be described as a bit messy. We only added another 46 runs having unable to hit enough boundaries, just 3 in the final 10 overs. We suffered from 3 run outs and managed to lose 5 wickets in 14 balls before being bowled out with 2 balls remaining. In amongst the carnage Rubber carved out his highest score of the season so far with 48. I managed a boundaryless 25 in my first home innings of the season and Jay Trevaskis chalked up 18 which was also his highest score of the season so far. It still makes strange reading to see that 6 of our batters made double figures and 3 had their best day of the season to that point but to see such a mediocre total overall. We went in for tea with our tails between our legs having expected to post quite a bit more than 188 all out. From here we would need to bowl and field well to get a positive result. Not many of us would have predicted that Paul Davis, our makeweight, would provide the spark that would see us quickly establish a winning position. It was only the 5th ball of their reply when PD executed a direct hit for a clear run out. His tried and trusted technique had served him well and we were all delighted. Jumping on the positive momentum, we made scoring very difficult and after 10 overs Frinton had only crept to 21-1. Not long after they lost their second wicket to Trevaskis with the scoreboard showing 33 and from there we went for the kill. We grabbed 3 more wickets for just 2 runs to leave Frinton’s reply in tatters. Trevaskis took one of these but it was the introduction of Elmo that really caused the Seasiders big problems. He was to produce a spell of 9 overs which contained 49 dot balls. He took 3 wickets in his first 4 overs and by the end of the 20th over Frinton were in tatters at 43-6. That was pretty much game done. Paul Symons (including a fine catch for PD) and Neal Harrington each took two wickets as the game fizzled out with Frinton finally all out for 99 in the 36th over to give us a win by a very convincing 89 runs. Our first 4 wins had been much closer than this so it was great to be such convincing winners on this occasion. I say fizzled out but in truth the afternoon was soured by an unsavoury incident involving Harrington and the Frinton tailender, Patel. Words were exchanged and everyone seemed to have a different account of what was said. The umpires (and me) didn’t hear the actual content although a rare strong breeze seemed to enable some who weren’t on the field of play to hear every single word! Next up for us was a trip to Copdock with the aim of keeping our winning run going. We would have Goz and Rare back in place of James Ellis and PD. Rocket Rudd would return the keeping gloves to Goz despite having not conceded a bye against Frinton thus recording our first clean sheet of the season. Spaggs would remain sidelined for a few more weeks and both Elmo and Neal Harrington were carrying injuries. We knew that the task of staying unbeaten was becoming tougher each week. Hopefully we’d be strong enough to make it 6 in a row.