Game 16: 2nd XI vs Brislington, Away

Spink on the mic once again...

Brislington might well be the best ground to play at in the league. Neither because of the pitch flatter than Ice Road's car nor because of the teas that were actually almost as good as last week's (yes, still going on about that sublime pasta bake). Indeed, the wonder that is the Golden Arches of McDonald's just 20 yards down the road puts Brislington in the top five grounds to play at around the world according to the Cricketer Magazine (possibly untrue).
The good news was that first choice keeper Osman was again behind the stumps. The even better news was that Leech remained in exile.
The bad news was that it was windy, really f*cking windy. The worse news was that Leech came to watch, and he wouldn't stop talking. It was very annoying.
Clearly having given up on all hope of winning a toss Hunty simply offered Brislington the choice to bat or bowl. 50% chance of winning my arse.
Despite the imperious skill of opening bowlers Manders and Spink no breakthrough was made for quite some time. Then, out of nowhere, a chance. The non-striker dawdled back into his crease and Brewer shied at the stumps. He missed, obviously. Good thing that Panchal was alert and backing up (false), just like he had been in the warmup (also false). The ball went for four overthrows and the Mandoughnut, already 7 overs into a Herculean 10 over spell that would have made Stov's blood boil, was not best pleased.
Despite not being the best bowling and fielding performance of the season the 2s kept plugging away, leaving the author to contemplate the real issues of the day such as how does a bird go about landing when caught in strong winds. Unfortunately, this was interrupted by Lord taking a wicket (about bloody time, he hasn't taken a wicket in 2 games and really should do better as he has been playing cricket non stop for 24 months and loves cricket more than anyone, even Thommo). Lord then bowled badly and was taken off. His response to this was to start sulking like a small child. What an arse. Panchal then came on and bowled several massive no-balls, luckily the umpire was totally oblivious to this and his run up was duly adjusted in time to pick a couple wickets that weren't bowled from 19 yards. The Eagle briefly soared in the gale force wind courtesy of a juggling catch from Hunt and Brislington closed on 246-6 from their 50 overs as the 2s did well to claw back some momentum going into bat.
Osman had clearly spent too much time watching Spink bat over the season and decided to swiftly administer the plow, selfishly declining to give the opposition fielders the usual fielding practice, instead hitting boundaries at will, before dragging a short wide one onto his stumps. 40-1 from 5 overs. Eagle also administered the plow to a spinner who took liberties with the 14-degree bend in the elbow laws before losing his off stump to a very, very angry and very, very medium paced bowler (Stov would probably have blamed this on Toby’s batting again, maybe for hitting too many gaps this time?). Fellowes, probably still hungover from the previous weekend, looked immediately at ease whilst Spink trundled along in very uncharacteristic fashion.
When Spink fell for 61 (Thommo took all credit for these runs having slated Spink for his lack of runs the week before), he was soon followed by Brewer, then Hunt and a classic Bristol collapse was certainly on the cards. Some fake news reports exaggerating the number of wickets falling were fed to Leech and he got a bit cross which serves him right for demanding ball by ball updates. However, Lord and Fellowes hit some ‘bombs’ that made Lord so excited he stopped sulking for nearly 2 minutes and the total was reached with 4 overs remaining. Fellowes with 86 and Lord with 47 (about time he did something well before he gets deported back to South Africa). Onto Pak Bristolians, the most eagerly anticipated away fixture of the season.