Willoughby Midweek beat Braunston by 30 runs

A warm, sunny evening made a nice change to the rain and hail last time as the Midweek XI made their way to Braunston for the second time in two weeks; this time in the midweek league.
Captain Simon Nicholls won the toss and elected to bat on the same wicket from a fortnight ago that looked as though it had been played on a few times since and not rolled much...
Ashley Rayner and Sean Thornton opened the Willoughby Innings and hoped to pick up where they had left off with their not out innings in the cup against Braunston. However the pitch had other ideas and Sean was bowled in the first over to a nasty ball that jagged back in and Ash followed suit in the 4th over with the score on 18. Hassan made a quick-fire 11 before being caught behind and it was left to Richard Foxon and Ian Button to steady the ship. They added another 32 runs to the total with some good running and hitting before Ian was bowled in the 10th over with the score on 52. Frank Claydon made a rapid 9 and helped Richard to bring the total to a more respectable 90/5 when he was caught. This brought skipper Simon Nicholls to the crease and he and Richard Foxon remained unbeaten, putting on another 34 runs in just 4 overs to bring Willoughby's total to a very defendable 124/5 off their 18 overs. Carrying on from his recent 70 not out Richard Foxon's 59 not out included his usual collection of bashes, hooks and drives for 2 6's and 7 4's to the cheers of Willoughby's spectating batsmen:) Si Nicholls finished on 9 not out, managing to keep the in-form Foxon on strike as much as possible.

Simon Nicholls and the newly returned from his wanderings, Nicholas Crane, opened the bowling for Willoughby. It was nice to see Nick back with the ball in hand and he only went for 10 runs in his 4 overs. He would have taken some wickets but unfortunately he was just too good for the Braunston batsmen and they struggled to get bat on ball.

Although we have proved that we don't actually need Nick to win games on a Saturday or Wednesday we all agreed he could probably help us out a bit here and there and that it was nice to have him back and that we are fairly sure that we can find a place for him in the team somewhere..

Kishan Parmar replaced Simon Nicholls for a couple of overs without any luck and John Gregson followed Nick from the Willoughby End. John's first over was a bit of a loosener but his 2nd over undid both of the Braunston Openers who were just starting to look settled. He first bowled Tom Binding for a well paced 38 and in the same over had Mikey trapped LBW for 21. Richard Foxon replaced Kishan Parmar and set about causing mayhem from the other end. Improving his accuracy game by game he started his 4 wicket haul by bowling young Aston Shingler for 2 before claiming the scalp of R Haynes with an awesome catch from Frank Claydon. Frank ran in the best part of 50 yards from the Deep Mid-wicket boundary to take a superb catch from a skied shot while running flat out. The batsmen had run 2 and were on the way back for what they thought was a safe 3rd when he sprinted in and took it cleanly, much to their and everyone else's amazement! Man of the match Richard Foxon finished with a good 4 wickets for just 12 runs with 1 maiden off his 4 overs.
Meanwhile, up the other end it looked like John Gregson had been getting some pointers from Mr Bibbly Bobbly himself, David Alcock. He bowled a ball that was more bibbly bobbly than a bibbly bobbly's bibble bobble! It was in the air for so long that we suspect that the scorer nipped in for a quick cuppa before it came back down to earth. Predictably the batsman missed it and keeper Ashley Rayner gathered it, had a look round the field, admired the village church steeple and John's audacity before slowly removing the bails for a stumping. A well deserved finish to John's 3 wickets for 22 off his 4 overs.
With Braunston needing 40 off the last over the game was well won and young Willoughby U13, Samuel Morris-Nicholls, was given a chance to bowl the last over on his senior debut. Despite being very nervous he bowled 6 good length balls with no wides or double bounces and the Willoughby team trooped off the pitch with another win, this time by 30 runs.

Well done Sam and all.

A great start to the Midweek League campaign and another good team effort bolstered by the remarkable skills of sensational all rounder, Richard Foxon.