Chingford Cricket Club

An attempt by the weather to disrupt Monday's game failed and we had the first of three excellent games in as many days. Chingford won the last two games which lacked the closeness of the previous three.
Ian Fullbrook had put together an excellent Umpires rota.
The catering, particularly for the 3 day matches where lunch was also on offer, was excellent with efforts being made to provide players with a variety of dishes.
Leslie aided by her helpers kept the bar open for long periods, and with guest beers on offer and a range of food an evening entertainment.
Old friends returning to the club for the first time this summer were impressed by the improvements that Roy and others had made to the floor, ceiling etc.
We had our new TV showing England doing well against Pakistan and showing Essex winning too.
Many people with have their own highlights but there were some notable stand out moments;
The Battle of the Sweaters
Throughout the week, the temperatures rose, but Mike Blake and Steve Thorne were intent on keeping their sweaters on for as long as possible. In the end, blakey crumbled and was to be seen by the end of the week, fielding in his shirt sleeves.
Metronome no more
Mike Blake has demonstrated this season his ability to settle into a decent line and length from the start of each spell and was keen to demonstrate this to the club during cricket week. On Wednesday he was callled into the attack to bowl first change and after loosening his arm with his ritualistic bowls to extra cover, settled at the end of his run up to bowl his first ball. Like a well oiled machine he made his way efficiently to the crease, his arm came over to deliver the ball on a decent line and length. The batter got lucky and managed to push the ball wide of the infield and set of for some unexpected runs. The ball sped away on Chingford's fast outfield. Len Daniels was in hot pursuit of the ball and amid some confusion from the batters over wether or not they could take a third run they decided to go for it. Seeing his chance of a run out, Lenny hurled the ball at the wickets, missed and saw the ball race away for 4 overthrows. When Metronome Blake started at the end of his run up for the second ball of his spell his figures were 0.1-0-0-7.