Ricky fall to rivals once again

Winning the toss on a fresh but sunny afternoon, Ricky went into the game against local bogey team Chorleywood full of promise and expectation. A strong batting line up, peppered with 3 players 18 or under and a decent strength in depth, what could possibly go wrong? However within 6 overs that perspective was shattered with Paul, Naeem and Raz back in the hutch with only 10 runs between them.

Luckily the next pair of Kammy and Alex played much more fluently against some friendlier bowling and brought up a 50 partnership in just 47 balls. Alex went on to make 20 before holing out to mid off and then a further collapse ensued. 79/3 became 111/8 as Kamran departed for a premature 41 and Adeel, Andy and Coops all too cheaply. Jack Lee plundered a quickfire 11 but only Majid with 22 reached double-figures of the rest as Ricky posted just 125.

"We wanted and needed more like 180 to make it a contest" bemoaned the Ricky skipper "and too many people played rusty shots or the wrong ones to the wrong ball". It was fair to say that every ariel ball did go to a Chorleywood hand.

The Chorleywood reply was infuriatingly steady and only Bilal's wonder inswinger brought any success in the first 25 overs. Late wickets for Raz Khan and Andy Cull (on debut) brought about some element of reward for a frustrating afternoon in the field, but otherwise there was nothing to show but a disappointing defeat in the first game of 2016. Lets hope the next few weeks brings about a change in fortunes.