Making sure he actually knew what time the game started this week, on the 21st February Murphy drove his team of regulars, and relative newcomer Curtis, to the Cov Indoor venue with the usual accompaniment of mediocre mainstream pop songs from the early 2000s, switching from Absolute to Coventry and Warwick Free Radio for this journey. When the game finally started, Samay, who opened with Gemes, whipped out a reverse-sweep second ball, a surprising display of arrogance from someone whose contribution with the bat has verged on non-existent throughout the Cov Indoor season. Inevitably he was out soon enough, and in at three was seasoned Cov Indoor veteran Tim, with the sight of his slow but assured walk to the crease enough to stir the team’s confidence. This confidence was slightly undermined, however, when Tim was run out without facing a ball, and the team was in dire straights at around 10 runs for the loss of two wickets. Despite not having batted in a few weeks, Ash, in at 4, soon settled into a decisive rhythm, getting on top of the bowling and slowly turning the game around, before a distinct lack of calling led him to running out both Gemes and Murphy respectively. Ash then suffered the same fate a few minutes later, and although Curtis hung around defiantly, he was soon to fall and the team finished on around 50.
After the turnaround, Curtis and Murphy inspired hopes of a comeback with some delicious opening bowling, Murphy in particular finding some tasty rhythm. Curtis even had the audacity to attempt a dipping bouncer, pitching the ball about a third of the way down the wicket and almost hitting the stumps upon the ball’s descension, a confusing variation that was almost certainly intentional from the fresher. Ash then came on at first change and whipped out some absolute jaffas, one of which led to a stumping, and Tim chipped in with a clinical run-out to keep the team’s hopes alive. Apart from an embarrassingly pointless appeal from eccentric keeper Gemes, however, the middle overs passed smoothly for the batting side, and the opposition beared down on the total. In Ash’s second over, the opposition needed 11 to win, and achieved it through hitting the tiring leg-spinner for a couple of humiliaiting sixes. It is worth noting, however, that the ball being used was somewhat lighter than Ash was used to, and thus any sixes hit against him are not a reflection on his lack of bowling skill, but rather how the decreased weight made it difficult to gauge an appropriate release point from his hand. The second six ended the match, and Murphy drove the side to tesco to pick up some meal deals, while Samay, a suspected undercover employee, bored the rest of the side to death with his never-ending appraisal of Papa John’s. Curtis picked up a decent-sized pie for only 50p, and the self-proclaimed ‘sound investment’ caused controversy as the side debated what liquidised desert should accompany the dish. Samay’s whiny insistence that Curtis use vanilla ice cream summed up what was a disappointing week for the side, who will hopefully bounce back next week.