Missing second team regulars, Skipper Hall, Roddy, the Hiltons, Jezebel, and David Brownlee, the 2’s set off for the start of the back nine, with Vice Captain Anwar stepping into the breach once more.  Debuts for Hanu, Pramod and Sundeep in the 2’s, we also welcomed back Hamad to the side to add a bit of bite to the bowling attack and some much needed batting as well. The 2’s badly needed a win languishing as they are near the bottom having only completed 2 games in the front 9.

Skipper Anwar called ‘Tails never fails’ and on this occasion he was proved right.  Having no hesitation he invited Leith to bat first on what looked like a half decent track on a gloriously warm day, with the outfield as bumpy and undulating as ever.

With no Skipper Hall, Captain Anwar was relying on the Great Raymondo to take over glove duties, opting to open the bowling with Connor ‘CC’ Clark and Hamad ‘the silent assassin’ Ahmed.  The start was delayed 20 minutes whilst we waited on Suresh, Hanu, Pramod and Sundeep to turn up when they realised that they’d programmed the wrong postcode into sat nav.

Once play got under way, CC and the Silent Assassin bowled very tightly forcing the batsmen to play some risky shots, which wouldn’t go to hand.  Finally after a few missed opportunities Hamad struck and what followed was in my own humble opinion as good a spell of concerted concentrated bowling from Hamad and Connor as I’ve seen all season, supported superbly by some excellent ground fielding from Mark, Hanu, Pramod and Sundeep, and two excellent catches behind into the ladylike hands of the great Raymondo (only kidding) who performed admirably given he hadn’t kept wicket in years, with only the odd moment of juggling.

Captain Anwar persevered with Clark and Ahmed bowling them straight through as both brought the 2’s within touching distance of the end of the innings. Suresh finally got the last wicket in the 20 over.  Both Connor and Hamad finished on jug avoiding 4 for 11 from their nine overs. Both bowled well, but Hamad just edged it for me bowling some absolutely beauty slower balls that had batsmen completely bamboozled.  Bit of bounce in the pitch definitely helped, but their batsmen did throw some of their wickets away, so lessons had to be learnt when we batted.

Rather than take tea Captain Anwar agreed to swap straight around, so after a short interval. Cheaney and his new opening partner Falconer strode out to what was hopefully going to be a straightforward stroll in the park. And so it proved. Falconer, ever the immovable object refused to bullied into scoring a run, easily keeping the Leith bowlers at bay, as at the other end, Cheaney played some imperious shots taking advantage of some short of a length bowling (hitting 3 boundaries in only the second over!). Cheaney almost single-handedly took us to victory before edging behind (he walked) on 24 out of a score of 25, allowing the great Raymondo to come in and smack a full toss no ball for 4 to finish the game in 9 overs.

A totally crushing victory, the fates had conspired to look brightly on the 2’s for a change, and all can be pleased with a good day at the office, particularly Captain Anwar who won’t get many easier games to skipper.  Next week the 2’s have a free week, so have to hope the weather stays dry and we can keep the momentum going for the second half of the season and push on up the table. Come on the mates from the executive estates!