Away at Nantwich who are (were...) joint top with ourselves and Georgians with 3 wins from 3 always looked a tricky fixture and certainly proved that way.

Half term and bank holiday meant a few of our regulars were missing. This meant debuts for new club man Sanjay Patel and juniors Liam Newport, Owen Griffiths the Younger and Alex Young. Not entirely a debut for Alex but he has re-spawned Doctor Who style as a batsman this year and it helps for this match report if we assume it was his first game for the 3s.

I always get quite emotional welcoming new lads in to the fold. Their families come down, pictures are taken, a few words from myself, a few tears shed. These lads have just joined the most successful team in the history of Cheshire Cricket with all the prestige, history and pressure this brings. But if you thought they might be overawed surrounded by such stellar cricketing names like Mashiter, Battersby, Hoque or Daniels you would be very wrong.
Every single one of them played brilliantly (details to follow) and if they are dropped for next week i would like it put on record that it hurts deep in my soul.
But you don't have a captaining record as played 20, won 17, drawn 3, lost 0 without being utterly ruthless and for that i will not and can not apologise for.

On to the game...
Nantwich elected to bat on a very green deck with one or 2 weeds sprouting which i'm not entirely sure i've seen for some time. The decision looked fairly ropey as Lowe and Hoque tore in to their opening batsmen. I have rarely seen an opening combination beat the bat as often as we saw in the first 10 overs on Sunday, both deserving of their early wickets.
At 10/2 in came Nantwich run machine Ricardo Rebelo. On the back of a huge century last week and averaging 140 for the season there was a lot of murmuring of what should our tactics be to negate his threat.

As he walked to the pitch i simply reminded the lads that he averages 140 against non Didsbury 3s bowlers and not to worry one bit. Enam jogs in off his indeterminate and ever changing run up, sticks the ball on a perfect length nipping away. Rebelo obliges with a nick. Mash and Mike Renison at first slip had already let one go between them which was clearly the sighter they needed.
Mike launches himself full length to his left, taking the ball inches from the turf in what i can only describe as the best catch i have ever seen on a Sunday. A first baller for the run machine!

Debutants Owen and Liam both felt nerves early on with Owen walking up to the crease and over stepping first ball and Liam bowling some filthy half trackers for an entire over. After that, though, they both got in to a beautiful groove. Finding the right lines and lengths and both being rewarded with fully deserved wickets. Hardly a bad ball bowled and the 5 wickets between them wont be the last as they work their way up through the Didsbury ranks.
Sanjay and CB continued to apply the pressure to Nantwich and we rolled them for 93 of which 25 were extras.

A simple run chase...? Not this week. Nantwich have a very good bowling attack and caused us a lot of problems on a tricky wicket. Once me and Enam were ridiculously* given out LBW by our old "friend" Collinge we were 50/5 and in a bit of trouble.

*Both balls slamming in to middle

Debutant (sort of) Alex Young was the man at the crease and all the pressure on him. Or so it should have been. At absolutely no point did it look like he was under any pressure, repeatedly attacking the Nantwich bowlers and refusing to let them get on top of us.

Ably assisted by CB Singh, Alex calmly (and at times brutally) got us over the line. It was a hugely impressive performance as so many wickets fell around him and much like the other debutantes it will not be the last time he is winning games for Didsbury cricket club.

A really clear gap opening up between the best in the league (Us, Georgians, Sale and Nantwich) and the rest and i think we're all looking forward to the upcoming battles. On we march.