On a lovely late April afternoon, eleven spritely Badgers arrived at Haydons Road (the toilet continues to be a hell hole for those interested!) and awaited the arrival of Octopus from North London. Whilst Beeks and Chris Blanco were running marathons themselves - amazing effort guys! - we'd forgotten that negotiating London on marathon day would likely interrupt the start, so a little later than planned we got started.
The Badgers elected to bowl and that turned out to be pretty much the only thing we won all afternoon. Octopus tickled us all afternoon in the sun and whilst there were some tidy offerings from the ever reliable Hash and a nice return to some bowling form for yours truly we struggled to keep control of the economy rate. Octopus played sensible cricket in accumulating on a slow outfield, leaving themselves in a very solid position on 239-9. Their no3 top scoring on 89, whilst Hash took a very respectable 1-26 from his 8, Foord 2-34 from his and Rex with a late cameo of 3-20 off his 2 overs.
Cue a classic Badger collapse, the Octopus had become the Kraken and we couldn't handle it. Or rather, we couldn't stop missing straight balls on the stumps. Damn accurate bowling! 5 Badgers made it into the teens but none could press on. A slow demise to 89 all out off just over 20 overs meant that although we started a little late, we finished early and could escape to the Garden Shed for some cold beers earlier than hoped. A notable mention to their first change bowler with 4-20 from his 5 overs.
Onto the next animal based battle, Badger v Rabbit. Paddington Rec is in for a treat!