A day full of hope and expectation. Didn't turn out quite the way we wanted.
Availability issues meant Skip had to play against medical advice and we had Jamie and Mark making their 1st team debuts. The pitch looked OK so it was mildly surprising when Granta invited us to bat.

Rob went early again but that led, for the second week running, to a big partnership (116) betweem McCann and AB. At drinks we had 107-1 and the Granta bowling looked friendly. Another total around 250 loomed. Two overs later Michael was out for a decent 38 but AB was slamming it around as though a Century would be a formality. In the space of the next ten overs our innings fell apart like Sri Lanka facing Jimmy Anderson on a green top. Tom (0), H (10), Fez (0), Skip (1) gives an idea of the carnage brought about by a grey haired slow bowler who found and exploited our weak spot. We either can't play spin, or we're over confident. For the second consecutive week we were surprised when AB was out, for 79. The strange way this match played out would find him with the highest score of the day. 11 not out from Jacko with the aid of Joe got us up to 165 but given our earlier position it wasn't a happy group at tea.

A couple of quick wickets, intense fielding, take our chances and we could be right in this. Couldn't we? We might have been but the Granta openers didn't offer a sniff of a chance until 125 were already on the board. Skip shuffled all our bowling resources, but nobody looked like making a breakthrough. Having finally dismissed one batsman for 53, the other was also out quickly after for 51. Now could we press home any nerves Granta might have. AB was bowling a great spell and Fez was hard to get away and the scoring slowed. However, the 3 and 4 bats had everything under control and merely made it a slow death for us as they took until the 36th over to reach the winning line. AB's 10-2-23-1 are the only figures worth a mention in an innings full of the patience most of us failed to show earlier.

A chastening defeat but other results make this division look wide open with everyone having lost a game now. We'll go to Girton next week with the hope and expectation that we can put all that happened this week behind us.