Absolutely Mow Chance

Laughton and Mowsley is a tough place to win. The locals are, and were, nothing but friendly and hospitable (including roast spuds and Yorkshire pudding in the pub afterwards). The standard of some of their players however belies the rudimentary facilities.

For seasoned members of the Scooter Squad this will be no surprise of course,, we travelled with hope but not expectation. We did however have a secret weapon we relied upon. Some have religious faith, some have skill, this team have Bombay Mix.

One Sunday a season or two back Mandeep brought some to a game and it worked its magic. A couple of repeats have seen an uptick in performances, sod extra training and technique . We were all aboard the snack express.

Scoot won the toss and decided to bat. It was time to set a score and risk early Pub O'Clock rather than risk conceding 300 plus and having 40 overs of damage control.

The early signs were decent. Mandeep clobbered 17 off the first over and one of those deliveries was rather wide and given as a traditional Sunday loosener rather than an extra. 7 balls into this innings he had made 21 with a strike rate only comparable to those who remember playing 'Stick Cricket' online, unfortunately he then fell to a really good low catch at square leg and the beardy blaster headed for the (literal) shed.

There were decent contributions down the list as Fleckney finished on a very respectable 195 for 8. An unbeaten half century from the Mole who took his Sunday average into the 90's. I kid you not, the Bruised Boob has turned into the Dimanche Don Bradman. Who ever thought that would be in a Fleckney match report? Not this Roving Reporter.

Now we didn't kid ourselves that 195 would be enough but it was decent. Laughton made short work of it scoring the required runs with only 1 wicket down and 15 overs to go.. Mole got the only wicket with an absolute pie, but one tough missed stumping chance by the fat birthday boy behind the poles is nearly all he wrote. But not quite.

You see the team contained three Sunday debutants and all showed all well, two in particular should be doubly pleased to have earned a nickname on their first outing.

Sunny (AKA Merv) bowled some very promising left arm seam and batted with good technique. You could see the ring rust falling off the longer he bowled.

Ali (AKA Lawrence) batted with great intent and he too improved as he went

Paul (sadly just Paul at this stage), batted nicely and showed good ability to bash the bad ball. We hope to see more of all three of them going forward.

What we don't want to see any more of is the failed Bombay Mix which undoubtedly came from a defective batch. With better quality snacks we would undoubtedly have won. No doubt! Grasping at straws? No chance, we still believe in the Bombay Mix!