Nottingham welcomed Stamford to Valley Road on a distinctly bright and breezy april afternoon. Following another abysmal performance by Brown with the coin, Stamford curiously chose to insert us on what appeared a flat and hard surface. Searching for their form of the previous week, Brown and Sidhu strode out to the middle with confidence. Unfortunately howver, Sidhu discovered that 1st XI cricket is no walk in the park, and chipped his 3rd ball up to mid-wicket, who took an excellent catch. Winton soon followed with an indifferent waft outside the off stump, and with the score on 4-2 the pressure was undoubtedly on. Brown was somehwat bemused at the other end, although doubtless pleased to see Storey scuttling out to the middle with his usual frenzied aggression. The pair slowly began to repair the damage, seeing off the openers (who, it must be said, bowled excellently) with relative ease. What followed was a ridiculous piece of cricket; Storey's suicidal tendencies clearly displayed as he ran himself out attempting an impossible single. At 40-3, Nottingham were in trouble. The arrival of McArthy saw the runs virtually dried up, as the pressure mounted due to some accurate first change bowling. Brown tried in vain to play the captain's knock, but in attempting a clip over the leg side field, succeeded only in finding a leading edge, and joined the growing number of annoyed batsmen on the sidelines, out for a hard-fought 34. Godrich wobbled out to the wicket with his customary grin, and set about slogging the spin bowlers to all parts, and duly succeeded, sweeping with aplomb and completely changing the face of the game. McArthy began to find his feet- driving confidently over the top, and the scoreboard rocketed. The 100 mark passed by, and the onslaught continued (although Godrich turned increasingly purple), until a waist high full toss was slapped to the mid-wicket boundary, and caught excellently by the diving fieldsman. Godrich trudged off, although his run-a-ball 33 had entertained the desperate Nottingham players, and got us back in the match. McArthy soon followed for 20, and we were in danger of falling short of our revised target of 180. However, two rabbits got us out of jail- tapping the ball at their feet and charging between the wickets, Robinson and McDonalds gradually cralwed up towards our target, annoying Stamford's boisterous fielders in the process. With cobb-dog raring to go, the pair continued, and saw out the innings to leave us with 171-8. Slightly below par, it was agreed, but defendable. Special mention must also go to Tosar, who slashed the ball to all parts in a brief but entertaining display.

 

Following a huge lunch, Nottingham emerged from the pavilion feeling slightly sick, Godrich in particular an interesting shade of green and Storey hiding his stain on his trousers which betrayed his naughtiness during the interval. Robinson however had learnt his lesson the previous week, and grabbed the ball and ripped the heart out of Stamford's top order. With "vocal encouragement" provided by Brown and Storey, Stamford were frozen in the headlights, having seemingly forgotten the object of the game. Cobbdog and Terry both bowled accurately, and the score hovered at around 3 runs per over. Both took a wicket, and after a run out by the lightning arm of Terry, Stamford were down and out at 70-6. The introduction of Brown saw no let up in the pressure, with maidens dragging by, and attempts to understand the mentality of Stamford ("it's not a time game, mate") were met with abuse in response. The verbal game, however, ended like the cricket match- Stamford utterly outplayed, bowled out for 110. An easy victory against an average batting side had been achieved, and the season well and truly is underway. Robinson's figures of 3-18 deserve special mention, as does the entertaining batting of Godrich, who scored nearly as many runs as he ate cakes.