Sat 10 Sept                                    Tiddington                             Lost by 17 runs

    They 247/8 in 40 overs     (Coleman 101 rtd, Dack 49, King 46, Amar 2/44,
                                                            Shanker 2/45, Shailendra 2/47)
    We    230/6 in 40 overs     (Ghosh 106, Shanker 31, Shahzeb 26, Maule 2/51)

After a season’s worth of aches, pains, pulled muscles and Cobra-nourished guts, the KCC juggernaut … no … jalopy, rolled into Tiddington’s picturesque ground in mid-September.  KCC skipper Rohan inserted the youthful hosts into bat, no doubt influenced by the cloud cover above but more likely a cracking hangover.  A keeper to cover ring with an average age pushing 60 is never a good sign.  Indeed, it took no time for the young Tiddington batsmen to discover this essential flaw in our strategy.  The loss of a wicket in the first over was soon cast aside as the young talent smashed our bowlers around the park.  Coleman struck a chanceless 101 and strung together two meaningful partnerships with Dack who was unlucky to be dismissed for 49 and King (46).  To be fair, a wet ball and soggy outfield didn’t help our swing bowlers and Tiddington finished up with 247/8 in the allotted 40 overs, a challenging score on the low and slow pitch.

A fine tea and more gut nourishment later, KCC opened cautiously with Chris and Rohan putting on 44 for the first wicket.  The spaghetti pitch didn’t help and soon Chris departed, mistiming to mid-on.  Shahzeb and Rohan stepped on the gas and put together a 97 run partnership for the 3rd wicket and at 141/1 in the 28th over, we were very much in the hunt.  When Shahzeb fell, Amit picked up the wheel and together with Rohan, steered us to 174 before Rohan was caught on the long-on fence for a run-a-ball 106, his second consecutive hundred at Tiddington.  Unfortunately, in rapidly fading light, batting became more like reading Braille and soon our innings sputtered to a close, leaving us 17 short with 4 wickets to spare.  As we retired to the bar, gut nourishment soon proved welcome common ground before the KCC jalopy rolled out of town, threatening to visit again, next season.