It's been two seasons since we last played Wilburton, back in division 2N, but the intervening time has seen the two clubs staying in touch with each other and remaining 'competitive'. The fixtures computer had also thrown in an intriguing double-header as our seconds travelled to Wilburton for a Minor League match today. Whilst some of the team had been preparing themselves right up to the last moment, Thomas Butler had been paying a visit to Quy where we played last week. Reason? He's misplaced his long-sleeved playing shirt. Since realising it was absent (when his Mum wanted to wash his kit), Tom has contacted everyone in the club, members of Cherry Hinton, and then went to have a look in their pavilion for himself. No luck, so he then proceded to carry out airport security style checks on everyone as they arrived at Campo.

Meanwhile, our visitors had arrived fresh from scoring 300+ last Saturday. Ditton were forced into two changes with Dobbo now almost permanently down in Sussex and Jacko with a bad back. Skip returned from illness and George came in as a gun fielder. I struggle to believe that Skip won the toss but we were fielding, which is what he would have done so maybe he did get lucky for once.
Without Jacko, Joe took over opening duties from the Playground End and had castled one of the Wilburton batsmen before you knew it. Longy started from the Pavilion End and bowled a quick spell of swinging line and length that got the batsmen wondering if they'd ever get a loose ball to hit. No luck though for Longy but he can take some credit for the shot that led to the end for the other opening bat. A top edge off Joe looked like it would land agonisingly safe but Marc was racing after it and took a great diving catch. Skip replaced Longy and claimed his first wicket of the season with his second delivery, the batsman playing on. Next over and Marc was in the game again. A bit of a fumble led to the non-striker calling for a single only to see Marc recover and throw down the stumps whilst lying on the ground. Wilburton still couldn't be discounted as they bat a long way down but Fez came on and bowled at his best. The sort of spell we didn't see enough of last season, but he's obviously a bit more relaxed (if that's possible) about his bowling right now and kept it pitched up and took 2-17 from his seven overs. Longy completed his stint with a wicket to finish with figures of 10-2-29-1. Joe also bowled out to record 10-1-41-2 on his home debut and it was left to Skip to finish off the Wilburton innings for a supurb 7.5-4-13-4 which incredibly included a six and a four within the thirteen he conceded. The fielding was much better than last week and we only gave up one bye and one wide with Wilburton dismissed for 103.

Tea time saw the arrival of Pam and Alan Dobson despite Alex not playing, but while they received a warm greeting from most of the team Tom launched straight into "Did Dobbo bring home a long-sleeved shirt from last weeks game?". At least he doesn't descriminate, just accuses everyone.
While the wicket continues to improve, the council cut outfield still leaves a bit to be desired so the run chase wasn't going to be any sort of boundary-fest. Given that, Michael and Rob set a solid foundation and McCann was a bit unfortunate to play on for 11. AB took his time to settle while Rob made the most of the odd loose ball. Wilburton applied good pressure with tight bowling and intense fielding, but they lacked the wicket taking X factor Ditton had shown earlier. Rob was correctly adjudged LBW for a solid 28 and then there was a horrible mix up leading to Skip running himself out without scoring. H made 13 in a decent partnership with AB who was still there at the end with 22 not out as Fez hit the winning boundary for a six wicket win. The scores will reflect a comfortable Ditton win but we can expect a tougher test in the return fixture as Wilburton can certainly be better than this, the question now is how good can Ditton perform in the coming weeks?
Also, we need Butler to sort his mind out by either dealing with the loss of his shirt or somehow finding it. Right now he's a messed up bloke (more than usual).