The 3rd XI at the time captained by Rob White were really struggling above the relegation zone in the 2011 season. So on the 13th August 2011 the 3rd XI were up against a really good Shenfield team who were chasing Chelmsford for the league title.

What I remember from that day was that we had a really good 3rd XI team with the likes of Frankie Hazle, Paul Hogg and Mark Schofield playing for us. We won the toss and elected to bat which seemed a good decision at the time. Unfortunately within the first 10 overs we were 20-5 and everyone was discussing hitting some balls at Topgolf as it looked we were going to be bowled out for not very many. I was batting 5 at the time and I was joined by Phil Tuffee at the crease. Within the early stages of Tuffee’s innings he began hitting the bowling to all parts and looking in great form. I managed to get to 80 that day in quite quick time which is unusual in itself before being caught. Then Rob White put on a quick fire 30 odd near the end along with Tuffee who finished with a really good 79 not out. So somehow from 20-5 we finished on 256/9 of our 52 Overs, which was a remarkable effort from where we were.

We felt confident with our bowling attack that we could bowl them out but we knew full well that Shenfield will try and go for the target to win to put pressure on Chelmsford. Both openers got off to a flyer before Rob White made the breakthrough by dismissing James Borman. Next to the crease was Shenfield’s best batsman and prolific run scorer Steve Roach who always scored runs against us. We knew we had to get him out early otherwise he could win the game for them by himself. Roach managed to hit a few boundaries early doors before the skipper was able to clean him up for not many.

After Roach was dismissed we went through the motions a bit and our bowlers were being sent to all parts before an inspired bowling change. Paul Hogg came into the attack and Shenfield’s middle order struggled to play him and bowled 15 overs on the bounce finishing with figures of 5-82. Despite Hoggs fine bowling Shenfield were still going for it and near to the end of the innings both captain Rob White and Chris Cully had to go off injured. It was left to me to captain whilst the skipper and vice captain were off the field.

So it came down to the last over which was bowled by Mark D'Cruz with them needing about 12 runs from it. I remember him bowling a superb over picking up the 9th wicket by bowling James Lyons. After 5 great deliveries, Shenfield were left with 10 to win from the last ball with 1 wicket in hand. There batsman has nudged it into mid wicket where I was and had began running. At the time I didn’t understand why they started running but I was able to throw it into Paul Bussey who has whipped the bails off and was able to get the last wicket to win. The celebrations after that game was amazing as we knew that result would definitely keep us in the Premier League that year.

After this great win we managed a little run near the end of the season and managed to finish in the top half of the table that year.

(Scorecard)