The week didn't start too well with the shock news that Caleb Seleka had been recalled by his federation with immediate effect, so he had to terminate his contract with us and return to South Africa early for a second successive year. Needless to say, a third season with us is as likely as my appearance as an opening bat.............
Thus, we move on. A crucial game away at local rivals Bentley saw three changes from the surprising defeat at home to Hornchurch Athletic. Captain Jamie Walton (hamstring), Will Howard (pre-triathlon) and the aforementioned Caleb were replaced by the returning Tom Ballington, Dan Green and Nathan Woods. Making his debut as 1st Xi captain after nearly 400 games for the club was Tom Austin. His first win of the day was the toss, and he had no hesitation in deciding to bat on a strip that offered the only bit of green on a ground where everything else was biscuit-brown.
Openers Tom Ballington and Theo Robinson had a look at the first over before dismantling the Bentley bowling. Tom offered an easy chance when on 29 in the sixth over as did Theo two overs later when on 20, but that was as good as it got for the home side as they were made to toil in the field. Tom got to his 50 in 30 balls (9 fours, 2 sixes) in just 35 minutes. Theo's 50 was more sedate, reaching his in 70 balls (9 fours) in 86 minutes. The pair were scoring at slightly better than a run a ball when Tom was the first to fall, edging a ball that looped up to first slip and see him dismissed just six short of a well-deserved century (14 fours, 3 sixes), in his last game of the season before returning to Singapore.
Next in was Sarthak Kohli, who took five balls to hit his first boundary. He and Theo kept the momentum going, and this enabled Theo to reach his maiden Shenfield century (15 fours) from 112 balls in 135 minutes. He was eventually the second wicket to fall, with the score on 281. Having been dropped (again!) on 125, he eventually got to his highest-ever score of 140 (19 fours) in a partnership of 122 runs with Sarthak. Tom Arnold came in, knowing that a declaration was due, and swung his bat for four balls before Jack Newton came in and enabled Sarthak to get past 50 runs (6 fours). The declaration duly came after 47 overs with the score on a whopping 298-3. This gave Bentley 48 overs to either attempt to mount a challenge, or hang on for grim death.
The challenge ended with the hosts losing their first three wickets in the first six overs. Tom Arnold taking the first after five balls thanks to a smart catch in the slips by Tom Ballington, and then two wickets for Sam Bear, again batsmen out caught. A fourth wicket partnership of 72 brought some respite for an already deflated opponent, before two quick wickets for Ballington and one for Dan Green reduced Bentley to 107-6 with more than 25 overs left.
The return of Tom Arnold was a revelation as he changed from left-arm pace to left-arm spin. This completely bamboozled the opposition (as well as his own team-mates) as he took two wickets! His spin twin Dan took the other two, including the final wicket as Bentley were skittled out for 145 with over 12 overs to spare. The captain had great pleasure in saying how easy the captaincy was and couldn't understand why people moaned about it, which is easy to say when you have a 100% record, starting with a 153-run victory! Tom and Dan finished with identical figures of 3-29.
Next up is a trip to Oakfield Parkonians, the team we have replaced at the top. We go there with a five-point lead, and a mere 24 points between first and fifth. There will be more changes in places next week as we hope to stay where we are.
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