Shnickoslovakia at the LCG

The 2nd XI recorded their first win since the opening day of the season with a convincing victory over champions Caistor at the LCG on Saturday. Skipper Ollie lost the toss and Lindum were asked to bowl first, but with a muggy atmosphere, clouds in the sky and a layer of grass on the wicket, it wasn't a bad one to lose. A frustrating opening partnership consisting of numerous plays and misses and a few shots through the air was brought to an end with the score on 43, as Jordan Peters got the opener to play all around a straight one. Caistor were two down soon after as the dream team of Wells and Peters combined once again; the former taking (almost dropping) the simple catch at mid-on off a Peters long-hop. Then, in the blink of an eye, Caistor capitulated from 55-2 to 72-7, thanks to an absolute wonder-spell from the amazingly baby-faced Dan Taylor. Excellent bowling, aided by his streamlined, hairless face, saw Caistor collapse as batsmen numbers 4 to 8 ALL edged behind to the gleeful Jack behind the stumps, sparking pandemonium on the field and Simon Jones-esque windmilling from DT, who took five wickets for two runs in 17 balls. Shnickoslovakia. Shnick Clegg. Shnick Whittington. Moby Shnick. I could go on. Anyway, an eighth wicket partnership of 58 frustrated the hosts for a while, but DT was the man again to break the partnership, clean bowling the number nine for 33. Jordan then returned to the attack, claiming the last two wickets, his third and fourth, to dismiss Caistor for a below par 134.

Despite the low total, the chase was never going to be easy. However, openers Jack and Aidan started excellently, putting fielders under pressure with their running and dispatching the bad balls. Both made relatively chanceless half-centuries as Lindum eased towards the target with plenty of time to spare. Aidan did fall for 65 with Lindum 11 short of the target, leaving Ben Wells to see us over the line with Jack. A couple of boundaries from Jack, and two plays and misses and and LBW shout from Ben, got Lindum home in the 38th over with all 20 points in the bag.

The almost perfect performance was rounded off with initiations for new players - and if you haven't seen the video of Wes Shelbourne's cameo, locate your nearest Lindum member and do so imminently. Incredible.

UTL