Farnham RoyalFarnham Royal vs Frimley Green Cricket ClubFGCC

FGCC, travelling just past Slough to Farnham Royal's beautiful ground for hopefully the first of many visits, lost the toss on a perfect late spring day and feared the worst when asked to bowl first.

Those fears, however, were unrealised, as, despite several hungover team members (JP relinquishing the gloves, so bad did he feel), Frimley Green put in a creditable performance in the field. Nug and Mike, opening the bowling, kept things tight and nipped out one of the openers, before a deathly-looking Rich, having not bowled since last summer, immediately hit a good line and length and took 3 wickets, one of them a beauty which ripped a left-hander's off-stump out of the ground. At the other end, Kevin bowled a very economical spell, and the slowies of Jim and Ralph O'Meara, the latter on his first appearance in a long time, resulted in more tight overs and a couple of further wickets. Rus Edmonds, despite back pain and a number of pints the night before, then bowled the spell of the innings, his 4.5 overs taking 3 wickets for the concession of only 8 runs.

So, at half-time and having taken full toll of the teas, FGCC were in confident mood. That confidence, though, was soon to be shattered. Rich and Tim started solidly and saw off a tricky opening spell, but first-change bowler G Mohammed bowled a terrific spell to take 5 wickets for 20 runs, 4 of those clean-bowled. His final two wickets in particular were body-blows - Rich going for a hard-fought 20 and Mike Parry following to an identical ball, seeing his off-stump toppled after a belligerent 20 which contained some exceedingly well-struck shots.

After that, it was down to the tail, and sadly they folded meekly, the last 5 wickets falling for just 7 runs.