After a disappointing cancellation by the opposition last week, Walsall Health returned to the field and Staffordshire for a game against Longdon. 

With the forecast pretty grim for Sunday morning, the Elf were hoping to avoid a second weekend in a row off the field. Fortunately, the early rain cleared away and not a single over was lost in a game that went right to the last ball. 

The team was excited and ready to go. Well, 10 of them were. New signing Paul Caines was suspiciously absent but was probably only running a little bit late. The game started with the Health fielding, some moisture on the field and a downwards slope that Lords would be impressed with. 

Opening the bowling were Liam Gower and Will Tomlinson, a great mix of pace and spin from two exciting young players. Tommo got one through the gate in his first over to remove the Longdon opener for 1 and got their number 3 in his second, thanks to one of 3 fine catches in the innings by Jack Stenson.

 From there, a counterattack started from Longdon, and Gower took most of the punishment as the batsman struggled to get Tommo away. The extra pace and the quickly dried outfield made sure the ball raced to the boundary and a few skied shots were just short of going to hand. The game was flowing back to the bowlers before a stunning low catch from J Preece broke a handy partnership for the home team and gave Gower his wicket to finish with figures of 1-53. Tommo had time for one more, another Stenson catch to finish with a superb 3-13 from his 7 overs. 

Rich Fell was the first change bowler of the game. Special mention for Trig this week as it marked his 250th appearance for the club. Simply a phenomenal achievement for a club icon, loved and respected by players of every age, new and old alike, people like Trig are what makes this club so special. Here’s to many, many more games for you, Rich. 

Apart from being a top bloke, he’s also a pretty handy bowler and he wasn’t going to stay wicketless in this game, despite Will Lauchlan’s best efforts in the slips. He began to breeze through the lower middle order and the tail. Jonny Preece also chipped in with two wickets, including a quite brilliant C&B, of his own, as the Elf stopped partnerships forming. However, for another week this season there was to be a wag and a sting in the tail. The Longdon number 8, a left-hander with an eye for a big boundary, was proving tough to remove and was rotating the strike well and regularly finding the rope. With Fell getting 3-29 and Preece 2-35. The last Longdon bat stuck around long enough to drag the team to a very competitive 165. The wicket, better late than never, just like the man who got it, Paul Caines. 

The Elf had bowled well but still had a tough target of 166 to win. 

A couple of the Elf’s form players went out to open, Jack Stenson and Mac. Stenson was a man right in the mood for a big score, bounding down the wicket most balls to unsettle the bowler, get the pitch of the ball and play a gallery of leg side flicks and pulls. Mac had a tougher time of it and after a couple of singles, he went to put a ball into the near by Cannock Chase but could only sky it and was caught for 2. 

Nunns was the next batsman in at 3 after a big score in his previous game in the position. He supported Jack superbly, who wasted no time getting through to his 50 with less than 70 on the board. The legside tactic worked with aplomb, the quality and the timing of the shots were exquisite. Everyone knew what he was going to do on each shot, but they were powerless to stop it, such was the quality of the stroke making. Nunns just had to take the single, stick in, and watch from the best seat in the house. The partnership got to 79 before Nunns was out caught for 16. 

The runs were big from Stenson, but the required rate wasn’t shifting from a stubborn 6 an over. Dave Hill was next in and went one better than rotating the strike and decided to bludgeon a couple of boundaries of his own before mistiming one to be caught well for 8. Wyatt Hill was next in and looked to support Jack on his quest for three figures, but ultimately had the make the ultimate sacrifice when a mix-up led to a run out. Will Tomlinson came next and began building a partnership with Jack that looked to carry him through to a hundred and the Elf to a win, however a big shock was coming, Jack was clipping singles and twos well but the boundaries were drying up and in an attempt to restart them he chopped on running down the wicket, he trudged off for an amazing score between 89-91 for a bit of a discussion with the scorers. 

With him went a big chunk of the Elf hopes, with the run rate rising and the best Longdon bowlers coming back on, it was tough going for the Elf. Lauchlan was out for 4, Caines 9 and Gower 3. Tommo was running out of partners; it went down to the last ball with 6 needed. Rich Fell was facing, the headlines were already being written of the winning maximum on the 250th game, but the bowling was just too good and the Elf fell agonizingly short. 

It will be a day to live long in the memories though, big milestones, a huge innings from Jack Stenson, cracking pub afterwards and that time that Paul Caines didn’t arrive until the 19th over. Well played, lads. 

Next week the Elf are on a big day out to Gloucester, not to visit Clarkson’s Farm and see Dai Preece recording season 5, but to visit Bayshill. Get the mini bus hired and we’ll see you all there.