You can always tell when Bielby comes back from his holiday; he usually wins the toss and today was no different.
But today was special and we all looked marvellous as we were finally issued with our new team kit. So on another hot and sunny day, when we won the toss and elected to bat, Blomer and Camberwell opened the batting, looking all gorgeous in our green hats and fine shirts.
Wayne was run out for 7 and Blomer went on to make a careful 10 in 13 overs. Swinburne was uncharacteristically out for 1 run but thankfully Scott (43) made an impressive contribution. 20 from Henderson and Shofiq belting the ball for a fine quickfire 50 helped Grace's reach 201–9, with Howden typically showing last-minute aggression to post a challenging target.
In reply, Grace's bowled well and wickets fell regularly. Bielby and Curtis reduced Tottenham to 22-3, and both took 2 wickets each. Shofiq bowled in 2 spells and at 136–7 the game looked very even. However, it was not to be and against some testing umpiring decisions, Shofiq came back on to bowl at the tail-enders, only to find their skipper more resolved to chase the winning runs. Yasir scored 60 not out to win the match and Grace's lost by 2 wickets. But a fine effort, although understandably Graces were downbeat after their third defeat in a row. Thankfully England had won another nail-biter against Australia at Trent Bridge!