BECC arrived at Croxdale Road looking for their first league win of the season. Captain for the day Elliot Mayer strode out to the middle and, doing his best impression of regular skipper Jacobs, lost the toss. Potten End elected to bat and after an official team photo, and Jonny Eintracht's eventual arrival to the ground, the innings began with Scott Gerard getting his choice of end and taking the first over.
Opener, Pickard defended Gerard's first ball just to the left of Adam Morris at point and inexplicably called for a run. Morris collected the ball and threw at the one and a half stumps he had to aim at in one motion, striking gold with a direct hit that left opener Hill short of his ground, run out without facing after one ball of the innings.
Adam Morris joked that his day had inevitably peaked at this stage, and it could only go downhill from there. Unfortunately, this was rather accurate for the team as a whole. Gerard and Eintracht bowled decent spells without reward, as the Potten End batsmen took quick singles at every opportunity and kept the scoreboard ticking.
After six luck-less overs from Gerard, a moment that all connected with BECC had been looking forward to: the return of left-arm quick Joe Saleh. Unfortunately, his two-year absence was evident in what was a fairly erratic spell, with the majority of deliveries flying through to Michael Blasebalk's behind the stumps without bouncing.
Ben Tilley replaced Eintracht with a rare spell bowling over the wicket, and saw Pickard edge a very sharp chance behind, beating Blasebalk. This proved to be the only real chance Pickard offered. Tilley, whilst more accurate and consistent than Saleh, also found it hard to settle on a good line and length, and the extras started to build.
David Kaplan replaced Saleh to try and stem the flow of runs. Bowling an extremely tight line and length, and rattling through his overs, Kaplan did a stellar job at building some pressure before he deservedly bowled Pickard for 70 to end a damaging 137-run partnership. By this point, Morris had come on for Tilley, and there was a sense in the field that there was a wicket to be had with Potten End's number 4, Khan, demonstrating a technique that would normally be attributed to a tail-ender.
Morris eventually got his man when Khan edged to Greg Mayer at gully. In hindsight, perhaps BECC would have preferred the catch to be put down, as this brought the very dangerous Akhtar to the crease. Kaplan kept probing and had number 3 Lee plumb lbw almost as soon as he had reached his half century, finishing with figures of 2-35 from his nine overs, which was an exemplary effort.
Gothelf and Eli Rosen replaced Morris and Kaplan, but we were now firmly in the latter stages of the innings, with Akhtar and new man Gurney continually finding the gaps that BECC were struggling to plug. Both bowlers certainly bowled better in their two overs than their figures suggest, before Eintract and Gerard returned to see the innings out. Eintracht bowled Gurney for a well-made 30 but Akhtar was hitting boundaries for fun, including an enormous six over cow corner. By the time 45 overs had been bowled, Potten End had raced to 303-5.
Blasebalk and Mayer opened the Belmont innings Gurney, later described as one of the fastest bowlers Mayer had ever faced, got immediately into his stride, and after hitting a glorious four through the covers, Mayer was bowled for 6. Two overs later and Blasebalk was following him back to the pavilion for 1 after also being bowled by Gurney, remaining a frustrating 11 runs short of the 2,000 run mark for the club.
Greg Mayer followed his brother's lead in being bowled after hitting a solitary boundary, leaving BECC 20-3 in the sixth over. However far away 303 seemed at the halfway stage, it was now just a case of batting as many overs as possible.
Rosen joined Gerard, BECC's self-proclaimed talisman, was batting nicely, putting on a 46-run partnership with Rosen before being caught trying to pull a ball that bounced more than expected, becoming the first victim of the day to the infamous Croxdale wicket for 26.
Tilley provided good support in his usual nurdling role to Rosen, who was by now playing a good innings with some very nice boundaries. Tilley did well to see off Gurney, despite a debate that saw him bowl a full ten-over spell (technically allowed according to league rules but rather unsporting given that the Potten End scorers had earlier told Kaplan he had bowled out after his ninth over), though he succumbed to the first ball of the miserly Hill's spell, being bowled for 1.
Hill, being the other end of the pace spectrum to Gurney, bowled slow, looping, accurate deliveries that went on to cause a lot of damage Gothelf joined the club of batsmen who hit one excellent shot before eventually getting out (admittedly to a good catch).
Rosen was coming down the wicket effectively to the old-timer Hill, before missing one and being bowled for a well-made 33 on his first match of the season. Saleh was bowled first ball. Kaplan came in and saw off Hill's hat-trick ball, before himself joining the "4 and out" club by trying to repeat his earlier sweep to the fine leg boundary, which only resulted in Hill bowling him around his legs.
Eintracht was finally able to join Morris in the middle, but after two nice boundaries down the ground, Morris over-balanced when seeing a rare ball from Hill not threaten his stumps, leaving the Potten End keeper with a simple job to complete a stumping and give Hill his five-fer. BECC were all out for 126 to complete a resounding victory for Potten End.
Mayer commented: "Put simply, this was a game against a much better team than us. Our fielding was actually pretty good against batsmen that found gaps and cleared the ropes with ease.
"The magnum of champagne for the Dan Frumar man of the match reward undoubtedly goes to Kaplan, who went for less than 4-an-over despite the onslaught happening around him.
"Time to look forward to two very winnable games in the coming week, with a T20 against Stanmore Shul followed by the reverse fixture away at Totteridge Millhillians."
