On a beautiful summer's day, Mandarins arrived eager to get on with the game. Too eager in fact... fully 10 Mandarins were hanging around a locked entrance gate for 20 minutes before the first opposition player turned up. On a dodgy-looking wicket (which we had to pick a few daisies off before the start of play) Mandarins were put into bat.
Captains advice following two consecutive Mandarin totals in the 60s was to bat the overs out. Sadly Arvind Manian got a grubber third ball and played on. French, McKeon (after a couple of upper cuts), Davidson and Brand soon followed, leaving us 16 for 5. The pitch and the bowlers were proving too much of a handful, with a swinging ball, some balls popping and others keeping low. Al Munro and Jon McInerney restored a "veneer of respectability" in the middle order before we were eventually out for 77, Jon and Extras joint top scoring with 17 apiece. Worryingly this was our second-highest total of the season.
In reply Rob Eastaway started us off well, bowling their opener second ball. But the Charlatans batsmen were channeling Brendon McCullum and were keen to finish things quickly with a few big straight fours and a few streaky heaves too. Wickets fell regularly, with Eastaway, McInerney, Forman and McIntyre all weighing in with a wicket or two, but 77 was not a big enough total to defend, and Charlatans got home with 5 wickets down before the Royal Artillery Barracks clock had struck 6.
Sam Brand