Wokingham 4's V Bagshot 3's

Wokingham 4's 229-3
Bagshot 3's 186 -8

After probably the worst selection problems I have ever experienced (16 players unavailable from the previous week), just two players remained from those who played the previous weekend! We only had 8 on Friday night and only by persuading my son to play until 6PM and my nephew who had come round to dinner, did we reach 10 with the possibility of Dan Sutton arriving late after work we might have made 11.
We remained at 10, as Dan managed to slope off work early and travelled down to the 2nd team game as the 2's had also been 10 to make sure we had a good chance of competing.
Won the toss, and elected to field. Youth attack with 3rd team debutant, Will Gardner opening up with Ben Haslam. We soon saw that this was going to be a long afternoon as the wicket offered very little to the bowlers. Will bowled his 6 overs straight through, only conceding 27 runs, which was a fantastic effort. Ben was back bowling with much more confidence, and got a wicket with Pete Blake taking the catch.
Ollie Blake and Jack Rowlett (mini-Growler) then took over the bowling duties and bowled well enough without reward on this batting paradise. All the while Wokingham were accumulating at a fairly fast rate. Nephew James tried his leg spin and nearly got a wicket in his first over, with the catch going down, and we spilled a couple of others as well which did not help the cause.
Santosh and finally Matthew got on to bowl before a very sensible and competitive declaration by Wokingham skipper sent us to an early wonderful tea.
Matt Funnell and Rick Medlock opened our reply, and after a couple of carshing boundaries, Matthew unfortunately got caught. Growler and Rick then put on 58 before the skipper stupidly tried to launch one over mid on, but failed miserably as usual and got caught. Mini Growler Jack then got to the wicket and new he had to time his innings before he had to depart early. Rick and Jack batted beautifully, both playing some flowing shots as they put on 70 runs. Rick had gone on to 63 when unfortunately he missed a yorker. Jack was now really running late for the party, and accelerated, playing some great shots with Ollie Blake batting well up the other end. Jack reached his maiden senior half century at about 6.30pm and had to unfortunately retire (off 51 balls) and dash off. Pete Blake, held up one end, and once Ollie departed it was a question of trying to block out the many overs we had left... Ollie, Will, Santosh and finally nephew James eventually perished as we reached 186.
I could look at the negatives in so much as we lost the game by a margin, but I just want to thank all those who played. Never once did they let their heads drop, they all gave as much as they could, and at 160-3, we had the opposition distinctly rattled!!
Great to see Will Gardner bowl and play so well on debut, Rick bat so well, and everyone got a good chunk of cricket played.

MOM: Rick Medlock. A fine innings just eclipsing mini growler
Other memorable moments. Son Jack getting his first senior 50! Proud dad...
Other Other MM's has to be Matthew Funnell failing to take a catch which had looped up above his head and landing about 2 foot behind him (whilst keeping).
My sincere thanks to all of you for making my nephew so welcome, Santosh for being such a lovely person (according to Mrs Growler!) hugging Jack after his 50! Also for those who had other plans and managed to change them to play. In spite of the result, I really am a Happy Growler (for a change).
This Saturday's availability is a bit better, but we are still currently short. HELP if you can.