Walsall Health 107-3 (18.1overs) beat Griff and Coton 106 all out (37 overs) by 7 wickets

In the third match of the 2020 season, the Elf picked up their second victory in the Warwickshire sunshine this week.

Stand in skipper Alex Nunns lost the toss and the Elf were asked to field. Dave Stephens and Club Pro Dan Dunn bowled some tight lines to the opposition openers Singh and Joshi (the latter who batted like Chris Tavare) but were unable to come up with any wickets. It wasn’t until resident Barman Andy Ince and Ironman Chris Hall came on at first change did the wickets come.
In an opening stand of 63, Joshi was bowled for 7 by Ince and then after two drops from Nunns and Hall, Singh the number three went soon after.
Chris Hall took the third wicket of the day of the dangerous opener Singh for exactly a half century, he stated after he was only 20 wickets behind club legend Tim Oliver with today’s tally.

The wicket was playing particularly slow and skipper Nunns turned to JP to ‘spin it to win it’ and JP came up trumps, bowling Green with a delivery that span square, however this would not be the only delivery to do so in this innings.
JP continued to toil away and managed to get the fifth wicket of the innings when Stevens who was looking dangerous was adjudged leg before wicket and Nunns decided to unleash his secret weapon, Tom Davies – new and improved spin bowler.

The first over was looking more ‘beef and merlot’ than ‘drift and dip’ until Haycock’s eyes lit up to a steak and ale delivery from Davies, except he picked out Chuck right on the boundary to everyone’s amazement…… ‘man with one knee takes wicket’.
It  did not stop there though, Tom managed to find a good probing line outside off stump, confusing the batsman with his right arm offies and then picked up his second wicket with a ‘straight onner’  (or the slider as I believe Mr Warne called it) to bowl Scullion for 9.
JP got the last bit of resistance when Jacob was given out LBW and left it to spin partner Tom Muralitharan to get the last two wickets bowled, the ninth ‘ripped sidewards’ and the last one was a big looping googly leg break to clean up the tail with what some have said was the best spell of spin bowling they have ever seen for the Elf.

The Elf started their response with Dan Armstrong-Bresnan and Dan Dunn. Both got out to Joshi, Dan Armstrong attacked the bowling like he attacked the Chicken Tikka aftwards, scoring 43 which included 7 fours and 2 sixes. Dan Dunn unfortunately played on and was out for seven.
Greg Philpott was out bowled for three but the experienced fourth wicket stand between Gorton and Nunns saw the Elf home with loads of time to spare. Nunns 20* Gorton 16*

Al Fresco fines continued and we found out Dan had grassed his dad up on Friday and Dan Armstrong lost his 8 iron. Andy Ince also lost his phone IN HIS BAG but all in all, a great victory and hopefully the Elf can take their winning mentality to Peopleton next week who they lost their first game of the season to.

Tales from the travelator

Tom Davies took four wickets bowling spin. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

Tea review

BYOT once again but Greg excelled with some olives.

Written by Tom Davies