Venturing further afield than usual, the Badgers travelled to North Mymms to face Ivanhoe CC at a well kept ground, and not in Wales despite the silly name. Timed game was the format.
Losing the toss again, Badgers were put in to bat. Openers Cloke and Marchant faced a disciplined though not deadly opening spell. Scoring was sparse, with Cloke contributing to his own downfall for a very long duck. Coming in at number three, Jinks continued his fine form with a nice 47, joined by Warman (38) after Marchant fell for 23 to that most annoying of dismissals, a full toss hit to mid-on. Next man Morse combined with Parkinson for a fine scurrying partnership, pushing the scoreboard on at a healthy rate, with Parkinson showing a good cricket brain on debut. There were worries that Morse would be distracted by the alluring sheep surrounding the ground, but if anything, they drove him to show off his prowess, as he overcame his bete noire, the slow dibbly dobbly, to score 37.
Sensible contributions from the lower order rounded off the innings, for a decent total of 205 against a steady bowling attack. Confusingly, this left the opposition to chase 203.
After a good tea with some excellent cupcakes, Ivanhoe faced the Blake-Maskell-New combo first up. Fired up by his mixed form with the pen, Blake bowled the quickest we've seen him, mixing lightening fast deliveries with mumbled jibes about Jinks' scoring prowess. Maskell-New was also in great form, with a fine spell of left-arm swing netting him 4 wickets. Reaching 20-5 in the 12th over, Ivanhoe decided to shut up shop for a while, perhaps thinking of the draw. Always a challenging job for the captain, Stew Mc juggled his bowlers efficiently, teasing out a couple of wickets before Ivanhoe changed tactics. Forced to insert a batsman not called Parnell, counterattack was now the order of the day, until Marchant cannily removed the interloper. Cap'n Stew pushed on for a win with the uber-attacking "4 leggies" tactics, augmenting Cole with Blake, Cloke and Foord. This allowed Cloke to send down a maiden, ensuring no runs or interest associated with him all game, before Foord finished off the innings with his big turners. It took him back to his school days, when apparently he regularly skived French to practise sports, explaining both his excellent cricket and his inadequate linguistic skills.
Ivanhoe totalled 76, to give the Badgers a win by 126, based on a solid middle order, fine pace and swing bowling, and a ruthless disregard for adding up the scorebook.