As Danny Kaye once said, ” The pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.”

Let me tell you The Pelicans drank from the chalice.

On a day that saw Northwood using our prepared wicket after confirming to PG they were not playing, a hastily rearranged wicket was created, and what a wicket it turned out to be. With Skip as expected losing the toss the Pelicans were asked to bowl, again a bit of a victory there.

With the memories of last year still fresh in the Pelicans memory a youthful looking team took to the field as Toobes and Kunaal opened up the bowling. With Toobes keeping the run rate going for Bledlow it was down to Kunaal to do the opposite which he did with aplomb, indeed with 12 overs on the board and 48 runs to their name Bledlow lost their first wicket LBW to Kunaal for 12 runs, this seemed to have informed Toobes as to why he was there as 3 balls later he removed the Bledlow skipper with a caught and bowled for 0, a particularly sweet moment as last year Toobes had been carted to all four corners of Bucks by their Skipper.

With Toobes still leaking runs he was finally removed to be replaced by Amir, Kunaal squeezed in another over and finished with excellent figures of 9 overs 4 maidens 1 for 33, a great start. Taking over from Kankate K we had Kankate R, I bet you can’t guess what happened to the run rate.

Now in the field it is fair to say we have struggled of late but today it was different as the Pelicans went about their fielding duties with the purpose of a Panzer division, Rupert busied himself around the field and even Rags stopped some boundaries.

With the Bledlow bats going for ever more bigger hits it didn’t take long for Rags to trap his first victim, the opener who was on 54 LBW a fine ball and a good wicket to get.

Next over we then witnessed witchcraft, the Grand Wizard that is Amir called Asad in from cover to not quite silly mid off but not far. Asad with the look of “I’m going to be wearing this around my fac”e hesitated, Amir called him forward another step then stopped him dead in his tracks. Amir bowled Bledlow number 5 pushes the ball straight into Asads hands. In days gone by Amir would have immediately been cast into a pond.

Rags not wishing to be outdone he removed bat number 6 a fine catch from Rupert, yes another catch.

Amir not content with sorcery then took a fairly pivotal wicket that of their number 4 batsman who similarly was dismissed for 54 a nice catch from Kunaal……..

With our tails up Rags bowled over number 8 and removed batsman number 8, who slapped the ball back towards Rags at mach 2 only for Rags to then grab hold of the ball, another catch.

Batsman number 10 was Rags’ next victim LBW, it was during these celebrations Rags complained about losing his run up, with figures of 8 overs 4 for 30 he can lose it as much as he likes.

Amir meanwhile not content with his two wickets had kept Asad in close who then caught batsman number 7, batsman number 9 was then dismissed by some quick stumping from Wild Ginger himself, Tickles. A fine way to end an innings from Ticks and a fine way for Amir to bring their innings to a close with figures of 9.1 overs 4 for 42.

The last 6 wickets went for 20 runs, amazing, and what’s even more amazing 6 catches. There can be only one reason for this, we were possessed.

With both teams trooping off the field it was time for tea, it was a Nico tea so quality would not be an issue. It’s fair to say, thank goodness we bowled as both teams tucked in to a menu of veggie mince, shredded chicken, cakes, fruit and some Afghans, quality, absolute quality, and after his preparing of the wicket earlier that day, a big thanks.

So having kept Bledlow to 153 runs Raheel and Asad were sent in to chase it down.

With the run rate ticking along nicely at 32 the two Pelican openers looked comfortable, it would take something special to remove them, and as you expect that is what happened as the Bledlow skipper took an absolute blinding catch at first slip to remover Raheel, sometimes you just hold your hand up and say well done.

Asad was now joined by Kunaal and to be honest there is not much for me to say other than Asad absolutely hammered the Bledlow bowling, and in fairly short order was celebrating his 100, unusually for Kunaal his innings of 19 contained only one 4.

Asad brought the game to a close with a pavilion bound six and a smashed 4 on 111 after only 25 overs, a fabulous display of destructive batting backed up by the bridesmaid that is Kunaal. Brilliance all round.

Ali meanwhile undid his pads having sat with them for the best part of all the innings.

What can I say, a truly excellent fielding display and carnage on the batting. Victory.

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Reports are intended to convey an entertaining picture of the day’s play. No disrespect is meant, but if on occasion we misjudge matters, please take it in the friendly and humorous spirit in which it is intended.