Synergy

Working in retail head offices you hear lots of buzzwords - we lean into a lot of things, we think outside the box, we compare apples with pears, the weather gets blamed for everything.

One word that is used plenty - Synergy. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

That for me is what we are about.

A chaotic start - the young debutant was late - playing another game, the umpire was late, watching young debutant playing another game, and the coach was late - some lame excuse about a half marathon. I didn't think he liked snickers - one for the kids there...

But once we got 8 players and the required number of officials in one place, the game began, Ashby Hastings first up - Lucy took 2 wickets - she's been working hard on her bowling and the moon ball is certainly proving productive, one or two came down with snow and airplanes coming into East Midlands Airport were told to take the northern runways and avoid coming in from the South through fear of collision. Jo took a couple of wickets but quite frankly that is standard these days - kind of like retailers discounting wine in the lead up to Christmas - these things are just expected.

The second of Jo's victims was a catch taken on the boundary by Anna - a shot that was in danger of hitting the floor from the moment that it hit the bat, but it kept on going and just about reached it's target in the air and the youngest Roberts clung on.

279 was set.

Rachel decided to make things a little harder by getting out first ball, and then again a little bit later but then decided that was enough and hit 2 fours and 2 sixes, as usual Katharine did the simples things well and that partnership continues to prosper. The next two pairs - Anna and Jan (Janna anyone??) and Holly and Jodie (Jolly?) helped the scoreboard tick over and 19 were needed for victory when Lucy and Jo came to the wicket - they scored 23... but lost 2 wickets.

We fell 6 runs short. It happens. We moved on.

The 2nd game was Syston, and we got off to a flyer - Anna and Rachel both took wickets, and then run outs, Jo bowled 12 deliveries, didn't concede a run and took 2 wickets herself and got the batters into such a tizz that they ran themselves out. After 8 overs, Syston were on 5.

They recovered. They have in their skipper - Ateeqa - one of the best hitters of a ball in the league and she smashed 35 runs to leave Syston on 289 runs off their 16. Last season we played them and she did similar.

We need to bat sensibly. Skipper Lucy sent in Anna and Jan first up and they got 21, Jodie and Holly built on top of it with a further 32, then Katharine and Rachel scored 47 between them. We had overtaken 289 in the 11th over.

300 came and went. Jo and Lucy moving the ball around the fielders with ease and 310 went, 320 barely stayed around long enough for anyone to notice, 330 was gone quicker than a bottle of wine in the Hennel household, and 343 was the final amount.

The highest score we've hit in League Cricket - we did get 367 against North Kilworth in the cup last season, but that was the cup, this is the league.

Everyone was fantastic.