The day dawned brightly, with the sun blazing down and a sense of optimism surrounding Coleshill. Would the run of great form continue? Time would tell…

A sign of the respect that Captain Peachey is held in was the arrival of the entire Coleshill team by 12:30. The opposition were nowhere to be seen. When one of the Smethwick players arrived and began joining in with our catching practice because he had never met any of his team-mates before was taken as a good omen, as was the winning of the toss. Dave decided to have a bat on a track that looked beautiful, and we were full of optimism as Atif and Uwayce strode out to the middle.

The first ball (a rank long-hop) was immediately dispatched and became the first of many balls needing to be retrieved (or not) from the long grass. After 5 minutes of searching, it was decided that they should just use the other new ball and get cracking. After one more brutal boundary, Uwayce tried to hit the next ball to Coventry and was clean bowled, sending Prabu to the wicket. It was clear that the wicket had a little uneven bounce and scoring was difficult for the next few overs. Prabu departed for 5, unsure if he had nicked it or hit the ground and Mike wasted 8 balls for a duck. 2 quick wickets and Atif was wondering if he was going to have anyone to bat with. Then Haider arrived…

Beginning slowly but growing in confidence this partnership put on 60 runs before Atif (clearly knackered from running 2s with a fit youngster) was lbw for an excellent 44. Kev joined Haider with the score 111-4 and built an excellent partnership, lots of intelligent running and some clean hitting saw them put on 49 before Kev miscued while trying to up the scoring rate. Drew came to join Haider and the 2 clearly decided that it was too hot to run so began hitting the ball to all parts, including some searing off-side shots from Haider, despite 3 men back he was still able to find the rope with apparent ease. With 1 over to go Haider needed 4 for his century and Drew needed 17 for his 50. Drew sadly came up short as he selflessly gave the strike to Haider to allow him to complete his century. An excellent final partnership took Coleshill to 245-5 which led to a tea break full of optimism.

Drew had hurt his back/had chest pains/was vomiting (all 3 were happening concurrently it seemed) so Mike took over keeping duties while he decided if he was going to die or not.

The regular opening partnership of Denham and Peachey were raring to go and set about their task with their usual skill. Mat returning figures of 2-6 from 7 overs and could easily have had 3 or 4 with a more generous umpire and Peachey (2-4 from 6 overs) kept things very tight. By the end of their spell the opposition were already dead batting and playing for a draw, so Peachey turned to the twin leggies of Daud and James. Bowling an impeccable length with dip and turn the batsman had no answers. Daud (2-11) inducing an edge to the keeper that wasn’t given before drawing the batsman down the pitch to be stumped. James (1-8) induced a slog that was well caught (this was another Coleshill fielding display for the ages) and both bowlers gave nothing away.

Peachey, again showing great captaincy in giving everyone a game then brought Kev on to try and rattle the opposition with pace. Kev (seemingly unable to see the crease) bowled with good pace, despite being repeatedly no-balled and collected 2 wickets as the tail began slogging to try and get the score past 50.

After his batting heroics, Haider suitably took the last wicket, showing good control of his pace and constantly threatening the stumps until the final wicket fell, giving Coleshill a well-deserved and comprehensive victory.