Seven Sports vs Frimley Green Cricket Club - Sunday 30th May 2021, 14:00

Frimley Green made it 6 unbeaten - their best streak for 20 years - with a win over Seven Sports in this exciting 35-over Bank Holiday game. Agreeing to bat first on a gorgeous late May afternoon (no toss here), newly-formed opening pair Ajay and Mark started steadily, particularly against opening bowler A Hickford who Ajay found hard to get away. At the other end, Mark was his usual belligerent self, playing some delicious off-side drives before he was cleaned up by the nippy W Clements. Debutant Alex came out next and quickly found his groove, and with both him and Ajay hoicking 6s over square leg the score ticked along at over a run a ball up to the drinks break. From then on however, despite Ajay bringing up a well-deserved 50, what looked like a possible 200+ score ended up in an all-too-regular collapse for the visitors, their last 9 wickets falling for 60 runs as batsman after batsman came and went (although credit to Manoj and Balaji for getting starts). Seven Sports' innings was initially kept in check by Nick, with FGCC's evergreen president bowling a good line, mixing up the pace and taking 3 scalps (one of which was well-caught behind the stumps by Mark for his first catch of 2021). With Seven Sports 4 down, their captain Darren Childs came out to the crease, and along with the left handed C Hickford started to take Frimley Green's bowling to task. With balls starting to go to the boundary, and with 3 spilled catches adding to the pressure, what looked like an improbable run chase at the start looked very much on. When Vikki finally made the breakthrough - bowling the left-handed Hickford for 38 - the momentum shifted slightly, but Childs remained with a 50 already to his name and the field scattered to protect the boundary. With the target for Seven Sports crawling ever closer, the Captain decided to shift the momentum by bringing himself on to turn his arm over. Having taken 1 wicket during the entire 2020 campaign, Jim's first over saw Suresh bag another catch at mid-wicket to dismiss N Murray (we'll gloss over the dolly he dropped earlier in the game). Not done there, and with the sun getting ever lower, flight and turn started to reap reward - and no more so when Childs was clean-bowled by a trademark Jim off-break for 68. With Jim taking 2 in 2 in the 33rd over, Vikki came back with 9 wickets down, clean bowled the Seven Sports No.11 and sealed the win. FUN FACT - This was the first FGCC vs Seven Sports fixture to not feature someone with the surname Johnson playing for either side