The 17’s set out on their cup run on a fine Monday evening, with a strong side posted out, the boys were feeling confident. However would Saxton bring home the bacon and get into the second round of the cup? Time would tell...

Donald won the toss again, 3 in a row! With Matt smirking about this. The second team soon put out his fire by remarking “Yeah but that’s the only thing you win Matt” On that bombshell the Saxton team set out on their fielding duties.

Atko and Woods opened the bowling up, Chris with his newly 90mph pace sent the off peg flying out of the ground, followed by another 2 wickets shortly after in his bowling. Mook on the other hand failed on the wickets part, but still managed to get batted about the park and was brought off after 2 overs. On stepped Shaggy (Hezy) and Styan. With Hezy deciding to bowl a few cheeky half trackers to make the batsman feel at home, Eventually pitching the ball up to bowl the end of his 2 over spell. Styan on the other hand with his accuracy and pace slowed the run rate down to a minimal with a wicket in his first spell but then was brought off after 3 to save one till the end. On stepped Ronnie the Rocket, relieved from his keeping duties due to Mr Brown hitting him on the neck during the second team match. Mr Brown claimed he thought it was a mole hill..... and the 24 million pound signing to bowl. Both bowling tidy spells with a wicket both to their name. Baxter squealing like a little girl after bowling his victim and Jonny keeping the cool when Matt took a diving one handed catch to his left (his words not mine) to relieve their best batsmen from battering the bowling attack around the park. In the mean time, Jeffo was showing off what he had been learning from his kickboxing lessons by trying to stop the ball with his feet (epically failing!) Pottsy showing us how crocodiles open and close their mouths by dropping a sitter, and Hezy and Mook both deciding that they would much rather think about how they played so many under at golf (Mook) and the other Thinking about getting his hair cut then attempt to go for a catch. Styan was to bowl the final over with yet another wicket and not many runs off it. So the score was 114. Good work by Donald to let no byes past at keeping, and some half sharp fielding from the 17s.

Out stepped the opening pair for Saxton with Ben and Jonny, This worked a treat as they got off to a perfect start with Jonny proving how much he was worth by chipping a ball to square leg... DUCK! Speaking of ducks, in stepped Donald flapping his webbed feet as usual and dreaming of another fifty, His feathers soon to be ruffled as his off stump was shanked out of the ground. In stepped Shaggy with Ben still hanging in there. However, he soon decided that he didn’t like his off stump and the bowler clean bowled him. This however was not given out as sharp work by Tim Grogan calling a no ball with the opposition having too many fielders behind square. Ben didn’t stay long after that as he decided he had more interesting things to do and was caught out. Jeffo, our new kickboxing champion thought his birthday and Christmas had all come at once as he was sent in at 5. Soon to be followed in by Ronnie the Rocket, as Shaggy shanked a dolly in the air to be caught... similar to the one crocodile hands dropped. Ronnie thought since Jeffo was teaching everyone to kickbox. Ronnie assumed Jeffo wanted to learn some running tricks and began to run Jeffo ragged. With remarks coming from the fielders “he’s just a slogger boys” and “there is not single to you fella” Jeffo and Ronnie soon proved them wrong as a few boundaries were hit (Jeffo hitting his first 4) and running the most suicidal singles. The pair of them put on 60 runs between them before Baxter bottom edged a ball onto his stumps. This left Saxton from being 30 odd for 4 in a reasonable 93 for 5 with Mook to come in needing 21 off 3 overs. With time running out, Jeffo showed his usual test match tricks with almost playing out a maiden until Mook decided to take a leaf out of Baxters books and run a stupid single. Jeffo then soon departed after making a contributing 17 ( a personal best by 16 according to him) In stepped in Styan needing 10 off 6 balls. With the pair of them running a 3, the match looked a winner for the Saxton youth, Mook had the Saxton crowd with their hands in their mouth Hitting a shot in the air towards cow corner for 6. Only to be let down as the ball stopped and they ran a 2 (if he would of put a little more fade on the ball and little less draw, the ball may have reached the boundary) Mook then departed for a cheap wicket. And the match was left to Gilbo and Styan to hit the winning runs 4 off 3 balls. Unfortunately this was not the case as the opening bowler bowled a sharp last 3 balls to win the match for Shadwell. Even though Styan tried winning the game after the umpire called over and the match, by running a 3 (good effort mate!!) Saxton finished the game on 110 for 7.

So Saxton were out of the cup in an epic game of cricket (as always up at the ground of Saxton) And on to concentrate on winning the league and beating Caribbean next week.

Ronnie (the rocket) Baxter