By Will Hopson-Hill (skipper)

The Old Fallopians continued their excellent start to the season with a fine away victory over Mathews CC at Chigwell. After being put into bat on a dry, dusty wicket Andy Huckle - making his first appearance of the season - and the skipper put on a century opening stand, drawing the sting from the opposition pace attack and going along at around 5 runs an over.

There were few alarms during this stand and the OFs had real ambitions of scoring over 200. However, once the skipper and Huckle departed in quick succession - one bowled behind his legs, the other edging behind - the innings collapsed somewhat and from 110 for 0 we found ourselves hustled out for 177, although Will Ellis made a useful contribution in the middle order to boost the total and debutant Paul Cox stroked a couple of fine boundaries too.

The collapse was largely due to a spell of accurate, full medium pace bowling from Mathews' captain, who finished with a five-wicket haul, four of them bowled.

After a lovely tea provided by the hosts, the Fallopians came out to field knowing that while their total was certainly defendable, some quick wickets were required. Therefore, the skipper turned to Castle and Crawford to open things up and they responded in fine style, with Castle bowling a nippy spell to claim a scalp - with an inspiring celebration to go with it! - and Crawford bowling very accurately to pick up two wickets from the other end.

Then it was the turn of the slow bowlers, with Blackmore from one end and Shaw from the other. Blackmore (who bowled another excellent spell) picked up a quick wicket, the batsman top edging a sweep which looped over the keeper to be caught by the slip fielder running back, but it had become clear by this point that Mathews had a single, main batsman - again, their captain - who they hoped to build their innings around.

He'd made a quick fire 50-odd by now with the score only on around 70! After some discussion and the conclusion that he was clearly a back foot player, Shaw was deemed the man to bowl the required full, straight ball to get him bowled or lbw. He duly delivered a couple of overs later with a perfectly pitched delivery which the batsman played over the top of to be bowled, sparking jubilant celebrations!

The OFs were confident of winning comfortably from this point, but the tail hung around for a while - despite some searching bowling from Ellis, Cox and Hamilton - and as the dark rain clouds loomed, the captain was starting to panic that maybe a downpour would save Mathews from imminent defeat. He turned to the injured Asquith to bowl his leg breaks, and he delivered with his fifth ball to bowl the final batsman and finish off the job.
 

Strike action: Andy Huckle prepares his shot                                                   Photo: Tim Castle

Many more pictures from the game here... (opens in new window)