Sunday XI v Sleaford

And so it was, in rather a nottingham forest sort of way, that the Sunday XI attempted to string together back to back wins for the first time season. Furthermore victory above third from bottom sleaford would be enough to lift the boys above the oppo and out of the drop zone.

The ground looked green and slightly cooler than in recent weeks as the fellas warmed up with a game of headers and volleys (stingers) against the hall end sight screen. The warm up seemed endless as the oppo found themselves snared in the calverton one way syestem and failed to arrive at the ground until after the scheduled start time at around 2.05pm.

Moving on, the toss was won by unbeaten skipper Dear who chose to bat in the hope of posting a towering total and skittling the oppo out for cheap. The opening partnership was Fletcher and Somekh who amassed a slow and steady partnership of 38 before apple head was triggered by the bizzarely accented Sleaford umpire. Arbajhan strode to the crease in the confident way he does on sundays and helped move the score along until Somekh was bowled by the overseas with the score on 90.

TK was next in and he decided to bat handle one up to the wicket keeper for a golden, Dale came in and scored a quick 17 until he was bowled by Paul Roberts, not our Paul Roberts obviously. The Chairman took two overs to score 1 before being caught on the boundary by the pavillion and Sookie fell for a duck. Singh sidhu was caught and bowled by the overseas so it was left to Rhodes and Dear to get the score from 129-7 into something respectable and defendable. Both players chivvied and pushed their way to 33 each and pap had a first innings total of 187. Pap with a strong bowling attack  were in the game and went to the tea interval with hope in their hearts and custard tarts in their bellies.

The bowling started off well with TK and fletch restricting the oppo to well under their required rate. What was becoming very apparent, much like the week before was that the oppo only had one batsman, the previosuly mentioned overseas. However unlike last week, the sleaford star was prepared (foolishly) to let his team mates get on strike. As pressure built through some excellent bowling the target slipped firther and further and when the overseas fell through a run out  (by matt dear no less) it was curtains for sleaford and an encore for the victotious Sunday XI. TK was the pick of the bowlers taking 4 for 27 from 10. Jim and Alfie took 2 a piece. Although wicket less, apple head bowled a good spell and at times embarraseed their top order.

So Pap are out of the relgation zone and with a return fixture (but at PAP CC) against madni this week the fellas will feel confident under the new regime.