St Barnabas v Phoenix

St Barnabas, at King’s, lost by 7 runs
St Barnabas 133-4 off 20 overs
Phoenix 126-7 off 20 overs

What’s the good of a road if it turns out you cannot actually drive?
For the second time in the space of a few weeks the Phoenix batting was found wanting on the flat strip at King’s College. This time it was Barnies who inflicted yet another defeat upon us, making up for the big win with which we started off our season when the weather was, and I admit I’m guessing here, 50 degrees cooler?
One home bat scored quickly and freely as our opening pair of Stuarts got stuck in, with Stuart R removing the other one via a vociferous lbw shout. A change pairing of Tim and the Fixtures Secretary successfully slowed down the run rate, with the latter picking up a couple of wickets to boot. Stuart R returned to end the resistance of their youngest bat but that was to be our final success save for a c Creed senior b Creed junior moment that was wiped out by a belated no ball call. Some lusty late blows followed and we were set 134 to win.

All seemed well when Aidan and Simon began our reply in untroubled fashion by finding the boundary regularly. Both soon succumbed to lbw decisions however, with Simon trudging back to report that he had actually got a fair bit of bat on his. Gareth got busy getting our scoreboard going again in his usual style but our progress was once more checked by Ralph somehow picking out the only fielder in a vast expanse of legside field.
That became the cue for a spell of utter chaos as Val, eyes alight at the prospect of a big hit, played a fortnight too early and was bowled first ball. Gareth then watched Graham B suffer exactly the same fate playing a more circumspect shot and Barnies were convinced they had Josh caught behind for the hat-trick. His dad, insisting afterwards he thought he was dealing with an lbw shout, ruled otherwise. That was just as well as the teenager struck hard to join Gareth in the not out hutch. Could our tail finish the job or at least get them both back in? No, as it turned out as we fell just short.

Barnies
Clarky retired not out 26
Freeman lbw b Rushby 12
Smith lbw West 4
Thomas b Rushby 17
Robin b West 9
Morris retired not out 25
Will not out 0
Jes not out 9
Extras 32
Total: 133-4

S Creed 3-0-27-0
S Rushby 4-0-34-2
J West 4-0-12-2
T Harrison 4-0-14-0
J Creed 3-0-19-0
G Briscoe 2-0-20-0

Phoenix
A Swain lbw Robin 14
S Lancaster lbw Jes 13
R Minter c? b Higginson 6
G Everson retired not out 25
V Biswas b Higginson 0
J Creed retired not out 26
G Briscoe b Higginson 0
T Harrison run out 2
S Creed not out 15
S Rushby b Morris 3
J West not out 4
Extras 17
Total: 126-7