Ricky post first win against Northwood Town

The day started sunny and warm and Ricky were happy to have retained substitute players as Kamran and Zaf both stepped up in the last few hours to play. Bowling first, Ricky were always on top after two clever run outs dismissed both openers for just 5 each. One in particular by Dave Cooper was a real bonus and a clever piece of work. The bowlers stuck to their lines, however often fell foul of the strictly observed leg-side wide rule. But the batsmen couldnt get any momentum as Amit, Phil, Matt and Taz proved a fearsome pace bowling quartet. It wasn't quite Holding, Marshall, Roberts and Garner, but it was good enough to keep Town around 2 an over. And then just like Viv Richards coming on to bowl his tweakers, Zaf Shah twirled through 8 overs of sublime left-arm spin to bamboozle the Town batsman and help them bring about their own downfall. 4-23 was his just reward from 8 overs. With another Run out off the last ball, Northwood had posted just 131 which was probably 50 short of a competitive total. That the total was swelled by at least 50 extras was the only disappointing part of this otherwise exemplary Ricky fielding performance.

However, chasing small totals can sometimes be tricky, but this was not to be the case. After Taz was out early, Sohal and Raz put on a half-century before Raz (who had scored 50 the week before) retired to give other batsmen a go. Kasser fell almost immediately and whilst Kammy was out for a single 4 (which went through the hands of mid-on) Sohail continued in serene fashion to post a half-century of his own before retiring. Our very own Gordon Greenidge.

Matt Funge and Jez took the scores to level, in front of a partisan crowd swelled by the ranks of the 2nd team who had already tasted defeat, before Jez hit the winning runs. A first win for 2017 was accomplished in a great team atmosphere. Well done to all who played in the game and hopefully a portent of even greater things to come under talismanic skipper Phil Riddleston. .