RCC 1s beat Caterham by 10 wickets

A few weeks ago, after beating Ripley by 9 wickets chasing 167, I wrote that wins do not get more comprehensive than that. Well, I was wrong.

After walking up what can only be described as the longest hill in Surrey to get to the ground, we arrived to see some very large puddles of water.

Despite the rain however, the Caterham pitched looked very good (must be due to the fantastic covers they had) although the outfield was very damp. It was overcast, wet and the wind was blowing so the skipper had no hesitation in putting Caterham in after winning the toss. Tom Easton shared the new ball with RCC debutante, Harry Hodson and they both bowled brilliantly, despite Harry having the disadvantage of bowling his left arm seamers uphill into a very strong wind. Tom however, was using the breeze brilliantly and was moving the ball all over the place and soon Caterham were in trouble thanks to some excellent catching by Scott Costelloe behind the stumps and one incredible slip catch by Sean Farrell. Diving to his right, he initially pouched the ball with his right hand, while catching his flying sunglasses with his left - however he had to give up on the sunglasses as he grabbed the ball with his left as it dislodged from his right.

In stepped Caterham number 4 who clearly had no idea what the term “defensive” meant and blitzed the most agricultural 26, including 3 massive sixes. However, he chanced his arm once too often, and tried to send another one to the long on boundary, only for Chad Potter to take the most nonchalant one handed catch behind his back, a catch that turned the game in our favour. Some more tight bowling from Tom and Harry and some more catches by Scott behind the stumps and soon Caterham were 7 down for 130 and we were looking at wrapping up the innings pretty quickly. However, some untidy bowling and some decent batting from Caterham soon had them scoring again so the ball was tossed to the “apparently” injured Sam Stevens, who was only picked for this match as a batsman. Well, if he bowls like that injured, then I am going to kick him in the shins before every game. First ball he grabbed the wicket we were looking for, courtesy of a blinding catch in the gully by Harry Hodson. Number 10 applied himself well and hung around for a bit, but Sam was eventually too good, removing the stumps of numbers 10 and 11, giving RCC 47 overs to score the 188 required for victory (probably 40 more than we should have been chasing).

The now consistent opening pairing of Scott Costelloe and Sean Farrell made good progress and after 10 overs we were well above the required run rate. Some tight bowling from Caterham slowed us down a bit, but soon both Sean and Scott began to show their class. Scott in particular was devastating and the very chirpy Caterham side were soon running out of things to chirp about. Sean played a masterful anchoring innings while Scott destroyed the bowling and brought up his maiden RCC century, which included 15 fours and a huge six. With 7 overs to spare, Scott hit the winning runs with both him and Sean unbeaten on 109 and 70 respectively. It was a joy to watch and the nerves we were all feeling when Scott was stuck in the 90s for what seemed an eternity, were so worth it.

The Caterham skipper, whose name is Charlie Sheen, probably required another 2 and a half men in the field so stop the flow of runs. RCC were clearly the “hot shots”.

This win now puts us 7th in the table and similar performances over the next 4 games should put us right near the top of the table.

Man of the match: Scott Costelloe
(Report by Paul Fuchs)