This bought Spencer to the crease on the back of an unbeaten 50 the day before he was looking to add to his recent good scores. This he did hitting the ball hard and finding the boundaries easy to come by. Crossley was not to be out shone and was also playing some glorious Crossleyesqe cover drives. Things were progressing nicely at 76/2 after 20.2 overs when the heavens opened and the rain came down. After about 15 to 20 minutes of heavy rain the sun came out again. By this time the pitch was soaked and was going to take quite a while to dry, it was agreed to try and make a match of it tea would be taken.

As always a good spread and then it was back to the action. After these delays the umpires decided to change to match to a 30 over affair and many felt this could handicap Huncote as they now had 9.4 overs to rack up the runs. This they did with both Spencer and Crossley in great form, Spencer was first to reach his 50 soon followed by Crossley. Each run was now cheered like it was the winning run, Crossley and Spencer were lapping it up celebrating each boundary like they had just hit a ton.

They secured a hundred partnership, including a huge Crossley straight six, and Spencer had progressed to 70 before eventually succumbing to Dyke, bowled. A great innings, Spencer 120 runs in the weekend and looking in great form. Brewin was then run out without facing a ball before Crossley smashed another 10 off the final over to leave Huncote on 160/4 from their 30 overs. A total of 84 were added from the last 9.4 overs with some great batting which left Crossley unbeaten on 75, a great performance by Huncote and the excitement was great. Perhaps a strange move was the away side taking K Dyke off when he looked in good spinning form.

A quick turn around and it was straight out to field. T Kirby opened the bowling and with his first ball he slipped and hurt his already injured ankle. He tried to soldier on but after 3 overs he limped out of the attack and took refuge in the slips. Some people say what a difference a day makes and that was certainly the case with Knibbs. After his terrible day in the field the day before he produced the goods in this game taking up the mantle of strike bowler with Kirby injured. Knibbs had both openers out caught and when he caught Peck off his own bowling to reduce Taveners to 12/3 the temperature was rising. Sommer chipped in with a wicket caught by Hubbard before Knibbs grabbed 2 more to get his first 5 of the season.

Things went a bit quiet at this point as the game calmed down before Knibbs and then Sommer struck again to leave Taveners 8 down with 6 overs to survive. Everyone’s favourite cricketer Wilkinson was in at this point and taking some real stick from Adcock and T Kirby, everyone claiming at one stage we wont wind him up. The vain in his neck and the profanities he came out with might have suggested otherwise. Well Taveners managed to survive the final few overs 2 bowled by Adcock and one by Scrimshire where most felt he had a clear stumping given not out. Good batting from D Jones scoring 41 not out at the end.

All in all a good performance by Huncote gaining a big winning draw and 17 points to add to the 24 of the previous day. Once again a couple of catches went down that might have been costly but we tried hard and maybe without the injury to Kirby a game we could have won. Taveners really seem to miss last years star bowler, Kev Day, a mystery as to why he didn’t play, and Rich Looms a talented cricketer.

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