MARSHY GOES LARGE IN DESTRUCTIVE DISPLAY

In the many encounters at Robinsons over the years there have been some very notable moments - big wins, agonising losses, the historic Ashley double hundred / Doc 10fer in the same game, Darren Smith or Stapleton blasting us to all parts, but surely there's never been a more devastating display of hitting than that which took place in a 20 minute period on Saturday.

With 6 overs of the Totts innings remaining, the score had inched to 137-8 on a very sluggish pitch; by the end of the innings, we were on 225! An astonishing 88 runs came in those last 6 overs, 86 of them (including 13 6s) from the bat of Marshy. Admittedly he will agree that he was somewhat fed the ball at times but my goodness what a display of controlled hitting, one which Robbies were powerless to stop. The 9th wicket partnership between Si and young Etesham put on 94, with Etesham contributing a valuable 4!

It was most definitely an innings of three parts - having been put into bat, Totts got off to a quick start courtesy of the newly aggressive Doc P who hit 24 very quickly before conspiring to be dropped and run out off the same ball. From 35 off 5 overs, the innings then stalled, with a steady and slow accumulation taking place - most people got going but then got out, with only Si holding things together until the late blast. A couple of players may feel hard done by, Russ getting a neck high full toss which he hit to square leg, and Dickie P looking to be well outside off stump when adjudged LBW, but as usual we tended to get ourselves out in the main. We had thought a score of around 120 would be more than enough in the conditions, so to get 100 extra was a real plus!

The Robbies line up sadly is a bit weaker these days than in past times, and once the top 3 had gone, courtesy of Doc and Asif, the innings capitulated to 72 all out. Doc looked ring rusty to start with but returned 3-20, while Asif picked up 4 and Big Bird 3 for almost nothing at the end to wrap things up.

A good 5 points but sterner tests await in the coming weeks! Thanks to Gary and colleagues at Robbies for their terrific efforts to get the game on with some tireless work right up to the start of play and for their great attitude and humour throughout - it makes a real difference.

I Will if You Will Biffaward

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