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On the back of a convincing win against Mallards, CCC looked to extend their unbeaten run to two games against this season's newcomers, New Hartley. The ORP's contingent of CCC will have recognised New Hartley skipper 'Nemo' from their weekend encounters with New Hartley. The rest of their side however was made up, in the main part, by Newcastle University students, including one-time CCC turncoat Danny Clark. After losing the toss we were put into bat. As ever, Nick and Chris opened the batting. Although neither seemed to be struggling against a good bowling attack the run rate was a little slower than we might have hoped. Nick was run out off only the third ball of the game for 4 after a decent shot came off a side door at a favourable angle for the fielding side. Rian was in at number three but could only add another 6 before being adjudged lbw. He can feel somewhat aggrieved as there was a hint of an inside edge. I followed Rian and struggled to get it away, I was soon put out of misery after I chopped one onto middle stump for only 3. Chris soon retired on 25* after playing a well-crafted innings, although this would be far from his final contribution at the crease. Simon W continued his good run of form by adding a further 15, scoring at a quick rate before being run out. Matt P was next and was going great guns until smashing one to point only to out to a good catch for 12. Chris came back in and batted superbly, pushing the accelerator and hitting some fine strokes, the pick of which was a splendid straight six. Despite Chris' heroics (53*) we finished on a total of 98, this more a testament to New Hartley's strength in depth in the bowling department and their energetic fielding than any bad batting.
Trying to defend such a low total is nigh on impossible so we knew if we were realistically going to win this fixture then we would almost certainly have to bowl New Hartley all out. Matt P opened the bowling and combining with Chris got us off to the perfect start from ball one. New Hartley's opening batsman looked to cut a short(ish) delivery, only to top-edge it into the ceiling leaving Chris to gobble it up. At other end was Premier League batsman Danny Clark who wasted no time in exploiting my decision to have the field up and proceeded to check-drive the first delivery he faced for four. Rian opened from the other end and bowled very well, varying many of his deliveries. A constant throughout this tournament has been the poor umpiring. Today's game was no exception with Nick having a clear run out chalked off after an excellent direct hit as the square leg umpire was pouring a cup of tea from his Thermos (I'm not joking)! Both Rian and Matt continued to bowl well and make inroads into the New Hartley middle order. With Nick or my overs looming we decided to bowl Rian through to give us a chance at bowling them out. The game was poised with three overs remaining with Danny Clark and skipper Nemo at the crease, Danny having come back in after hitting 25*. Nick bowled the third from last over and managed to make the breakthrough. Whilst watching the ball sail over his head looking all the world a six it clipped the side wall, hit the stanchion and somehow rebounded off my diving arm and resulted in a somewhat bizarre and spectacular catch! This left Matt P one over to bowl at their captain, who needed about 20, before either Nick and I had to bowl the final two overs. Matt P almost won the game with his first delivery of his third and final over after putting down an extremely difficult 'caught and bowled' opportunity, and the third ball dropped just out of Rian's grasp. As it was after Matt struck two balls later, clean bowling Nemo through the gate to seal a close and exceedingly satisfying victory
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