With whispers of currygate circling, criticism of Stoke’s declaration being discussed, Auggie conducting the majority of ground set up and Sam waiting for the oppo to finish turtling, the 1s we’re back playing cricket at the Heath. The Gerv promptly won the toss and given the nature of timed games, choose to bowl on a typical Putney Heath road.

Despite this, the rebranded connoisseur Jamie Menderson produced a sparkling performance opening up from the top end. After a few corkers, Mendo sent the ball barrelling into the leg stump of Weybridge’s left handed bat who still seemed dazed from being hit in the head the over before. Opener #2 soon joined in, racking up 3 wickets in his first spell. Menderson, however, continued to use brut force to reign terroir on the Weybridge batsmen whilst maintaining metronomic wine and length. Despite a few streaky shots, JM held his bottle and once again sent the claret sphere tanking into the poles, putting the Vandals well and truly on to the back foot.

Gaurav entered the scene, bowling some dangerous deliveries with good pace. Although the wayward nature of his 3rd over seemed to suggest that he may have still been drunk from the SW15 Cup aftermath in April. Fortunately the flowers were spared the regurgitation of flat London Pride on this occasion.

With sticker man Jack in the abyss, having booked himself and Craig into an exclusive and mysterious event, the Gerv (not invited) decided to lean into the Fuchsy sized hole in the team. Pre game the bookies would perhaps have had lower odds on Auggie getting a bowl. However, Sam toiled away well with his offies and would have had a well deserved wicket had one of the bats walked.

Time for some Bas ball. Iamronbasballnet coming off the back of 3 consecutive 4fers was eyeing up going one better this week. A couple of sharp catches from Sticky and Ted made that start to look feasible. Another grab by Waheed, who had time to give himself a pep talk on how to catch the ball as it popped towards him. This was followed by a clean bowled which took Ron to 4 wickets and on the brink of that elusive 5fer. Could this be the week?

Arms flailing, legs pumping Ron bundled in and released a trademark slower ball, wrapping the batsman on the ankle, plumb, out. 5fer! Surely? No. The umpire gave a no ball to the surprise and amusement of everyone at the ground. Opener #2 pounced on this opportunity. Fully aware of Bas’ predicament and the opportunity to ruin his day, he came back on to trap the last bat in front. Unlucky Ron, no 5fer for you. Nonetheless a cracking spell to make it 4 x 4fers in 4 games and a MOTM performance. Weybridge were restricted to a well under par 119ao at tea where rumours continued to spiral around how many hundreds of currys were due to arrive in Putney throughout the afternoon.

The second half saw some classy batting as we looked to knock off the total in style. Sticky smashed a few to the backward point boundary in typical fashion before appearing to use Auggie’s bat to defend a straight one. Away from the middle the suggestion of boundary bowls was discussed to avoid pad rash. As Rubel (TFC) scratched around for an old training ball, Jamie Menderson shocked all onlooking observers as he brought out a polished set of boundary balls, all different colours and weights. The sommelier then proceeded to produce a classy and clinical boundary bowls performance that mirrored Waheed and Sam’s dominance in the middle. With 4s and 6s flowing at regular intervals the RCC bats made the chase look very easy reaching the target in 16 overs, Sam ending on 33* and Waheed 64* whilst JM won 5 and 4.

Back at the clubhouse it was great evening to celebrate 80points. Despite the 6 curries to 1 human ratio, Badger chewing ears with his ball by ball account of the day & Jamie chugging all red wine in sight, it was a wonderful event (thanks to everyone involved in organising). Waheed got dick of the day for taking catches and generally being too good at cricket. Well played all, let’s make it 3 on the bounce next week.