SOMETHING IN THE WATER?

August is proving to be quite the month down at Totty St John's.

The month began with the fantastic scenes as the Totty Saints lifted the GMCL T20 plate, with close to 1,000 spectators basking in the sun as our boys pulled off a pair of amazing victories on home soil. Set in the context of what has been an underwhelming season results-wise for the most part, this appears to have kicked off a club-wide renaissance.

By their own admission, the first half of the season was disappointing for our two Saturday sides. Despite various excellent individual performances, particularly with the bat, results hadn't gone our way. The 1sts were languishing in or around the drop zone while the 2nds had hit rock bottom in their division. There were of course some great things to talk about, not least the continued development of our juniors with Corey and AJ notching maiden senior hundreds, and pre-season recruit Harvey Holt impressing in his opening role with the 1sts.

The impressive run in the T20 competition definitely brought some players into form, with pro Mike Burns enjoying an especially good time with both bat and ball in the last 6-8 weeks. A ton, three half centuries and four 5 wicket hauls in that time offer the raw stats, but the manner in which the 1sts have improved is due to much better team showings all round. Five wins from seven games has not only helped the side remove any threat of relegation but actually propelled them into contention for the top four. August has seen a seven wicket haul for Ste Brooks and a magnificent 128 from Harvey, whose ton against Prestwich was the backbone of a highly impressive victory. The effort of Nathan Hall in an opening partnership of 166 can't be underestimated, while Burns' 7-49 shot out the strong Prestwich side for just 118.

The 3rd XI continue to make enormous strides in their Sunday games. Despite an unfortunate cup exit, league form has continued to be impressive, with Aaron and Tatts' side sitting in fourth place. Best of all, the progress of younger players continues to be a shining light: Luke Hall joined the 100 club this past weekend, adding 109 from 93 balls, and becoming the fourth U18 to register a senior cricket century this year alone. Luke is of course the new Awais, having already played about 250 games this season!

But amidst all this amazing stuff, arguably nothing was better to watch or more unlikely than the conclusion to the 2nd XI game last weekend against Springhead. Having once again been somewhat loose with the ball, a target of 267 to win seemed a very long way away, particularly when we had slumped to 93-5. A mini-resurgence led by Luke and Corey was the prelude to another collapse, with Luke's departure leaving the score on 181-9, some 86 runs from victory.

Enter perhaps the most unlikely batting double act you can throw together, opening bowlers Fez and Jack Schoey. While both have shown flashes of form this year, I'm not sure anyone really gave us much of a hope, particularly as there were only 8 overs left at this stage! Cue perhaps the story of the season. Fez bashed the ball to all parts, while Jack was scoring at a run a ball too. Still, with two overs left, the pair had managed to get the target down to 27, still a long way away with just one false shot spelling the end. The 44th over will go down as one of those amazing moments, with Fez striking four boundaries and a total of 25 runs plundered. Jack was calm enough to block the first ball of the final over before smashing the winning runs to spark one hell of a victory celebration and maybe the biggest 10th wicket partnership in club history to boot?

To misquote a grumpy sporting figure - "Cricket, bloody hell".

Jack and Fez celebrate the heroic victory (courtesy Kieran)