Four to play, Main back at the summit

A potential banana skin, with 5 of last weeks XI away, reinforcements had to be drafted in. Pett was back from Moonlighting, Pecki from grafting, Swall was back into the fold and Turk was making his seasons debut. Wallace was a late withdrawal so Henners took the call to play instead of watching the Merry Millers.

The sun was burning, the outfield was scorched and the wicket was dry, Rich called wrong and they asked us to take first knock. With last weeks too 3 all sunning themselves in Majorca, holidays during Cricket season shouldn’t be allowed. Pett and Peck resumed their partnership at the top. Pecki got off to a flyer, pummelling the boundaries, but Petty found it a bit more difficult and nicked off for 1. TG made up the new look top 3 and also struggled with the track doing all kinds. The Sat Nav boys both fell, Pecki for a brisk 27 and TG for a single figure 7. 3-38 looked dangerous for The Mainers. Skip and Fez grafted, but Fez (7) was given caught behind by umpire Reevo. Rich (10) was long behind him and Wombwell was in trouble 69-5. Wombwell needed the tail to wag and how it did. Swal 38 (Afghan Hound, tall, elegant, graceful) played some wonderful shots, strokes that wouldn’t have looked out of place at any arena, GDad 37 (Saint Bernard, loyal, drinks carrier, top drooler) muscled boundaries including the only maximum of the game. George 48 (Terrier, fidgety, busy, annoying) played probably the innings of his WMCC career, ran out of steam, fiddy avoidance. Reevo 32 (Mastif, massive, powerful, strong) played alongside George to get the score over 200. Turk and Henners put on 15 for the last wicket to get The Mainers to 250, something they could have only dreamed of at 69-5.

Play to resume at 5pm. Pecki and Reevo opened up with Reevo almost making the breakthrough, but Henners couldn’t hang on to sharp catch. Fidler & Kazmi had rattled along reaching 50 in the 10th over. TG replaced Reevo and instantly got the wicket of the main aggressor Kazmi for 31, with a swooping catch from Turk. The hosts was up with the rate, with Shafiq joining Fidler on n the middle. The young pair closing in on another half century partnership, but the change in the attack paid off again with the skipper taking a low catch to get rid of Fidler for a fine 34 off the bowling of Turk. Henners replaced TG to slow things down and again the change worked, 2 for Henners in an over. RTCCs 3rd wicket cleaned bowled and 4 down with a good C&B. the Mainers now had the home team rocking 4-113, but with wickets in hand and plenty of overs the next 30 minutes play could swing it either way. Henners grabbed the 5th wicket tempting Ahmed down the track and kick hands Pett did the rest, TG replaced Turk and got involved again with a ball that popped leaving Pett with the simplest of jobs to catch Khalid for 5, Rotherham now teetering on 153-6. Shafiq who played some fine shots and had made his fiddy, was the hosts last chance, but TG had 2nd thoughts and removed middle and off to all but end the game. Both TG and Henners had 3 apiece and will 8 overs to go TG and Henners wanted the last 3 wickets, some of the fielding and dropped catches would have had you thought otherwise, with 3 or 4 catches going down. Henners had Khan stumped, but wasn’t given which caused a little of controversy, Reevo then put the same player down the next ball, but St Bernard snaffled Khan to give Henners 4, TG (4-29) then made it 4 of his own trapping Shah in front of all 3. With the overs ticking down it was then a race to see who get take home Michelle. Batty turned his arm over for the penultimate over but couldn’t grab the last wicket. Henners had the Cherry for the last over with Hussain and Thornton looking to block out the final set. Hussain ran through for a single and with 3 balls remaining Skelly put down Thornton, Thornton then went for a bit hit and only skied it, which GDad was under and clutched it to give Henry Harry Skelton 5 for 51 Rotherham 181 All Out.

Maximum points for the Mainers and back to the top of the pile after Don’t lost against Hallam. 4 games to go, it’s looking like an exciting end to the season.

Double bubble for WMCC as the 2s best top of the league Adwick to move into 2nd hole.