First thing I'd like to say is, big apologies for the lack of blogs during the 2009 season, absolutely no idea what went wrong, ran a simple upgrade today and lo and behold, back in working order!

I've just been re-elected for another term as 2nd Team captain despite the fact I'm only likely to be available for around half of the matches, it is a job I enjoy doing and I am looking forward t next year

Congratulations to Simon Davies who has been elected to the role of First Team captain and I would like to express my thanks to Neil Reardon and Huw Wilcox who did the job last year and hope they will continue to play for the club for many years to come

Also congratulations to Rhys Norville on his election to the role of 3rd Team captain, probably the hardest job in the club as the 2nd Team captain will always pinch his best players after the 1st Team captain has offloaded the best from the 2nd team. This usually happens on a Saturday morning or late on a Friday night

I'm sure both will be successful in their roles and I wish them all the best for next year!

Now, I need to sort them out with a blogin - which is what messed it up in May!

C'Est la vie!

The Second Team recorded their 2nd victory of the season with a crushing 99 run defeat of Usk making up for the 1st team's destruction at the hands of their Usk counterparts

I again called correctly and decided to have first crack at a greenish track and opened up with Cletus and young Tom Gane. Cletus looked out of sorts and struggled whereas Gane looked in good nick for one of such a young age.

Cletus was soon out and he was replaced at the crease by Ashley White lookalike Dan Evans who managed to get into double figures on his second team debut and he certainly didn't look out of place

Tom got bowled by Usk's left arm spinner Julian Smith making him the first of his fifer. Fizzy Evans soon followed and then the two Ashley's briefly came together before the younger of the two became Smith's 3rd victim.

Lee Kendall then joined the older Ashley but couldn't find the form of earlier in the season and soon became Smith's victim No 4. That brought the skipper Andrew Shelton out to the crease going for his 4th duck on the bounce on the trek for the long standing club record of 7 currently held by Mojo's very own the late Ray Meader.

Fortunately for the skipper he got off the mark but still looked nervy and out of form whereas Ash continued to warrant his place up the order before he mistimed one and became victim no 5 for Smith who in fairness bowled very well, although I didn't exactly help by making him look like a young Phil Edmonds but c'est la vie

Richard Blake then joined the skipper at the wicket with the 'wood struggling at 99-6 and it looked like an early finish but Blakey (I'll 'ave you Butler) and Shelts put on 89 for the 7th wicket with Blakey getting the bulk of the runs with a superb 59 (helped by being given not out by Usk's umpire when the Usk players were confident he'd hit it). Shelts soon followed for 29 marking a steeped improvement on the previous 3 innings and fully justifying going in at 7, much to Bobby's disgust!!. That left us on 200-8 with 5 overs to go and maximum points seeming unlikely but some fine running between the wickets and some superb hitting by Nick Hurley (including 15 off the last over) saw 'wood through to 228-8 off 50 overs fully justifying the skipper's decision to bat first

In reply the Usk openers put on 26 for the first wicket off 8 overs when Ashley bowled the Usk skipper Mike Kear for 10 with one that kept a little low. Ash or was it Dan, quickly removed Kear's fellow opener Richie Morris caught superbly by Kendall standing up to young Dusty and when Bobby Matthews bowled Sanjay Thepan Usk were reeling at 27-3.

Then an inspired bit of captaincy by Shelts moving Fizzy Evans from silly mid-off to short cover and three balls later Edgerton smacked a half tracker straight at him and his bucket hands took a superb catch and Usk were 27-4.

Surely 'wood wouldn't make the same mistake they did against Newport and let Usk off the hook would they? It seemed like it for a while as Gareth Knott was smacked for two huge sixes straight back over his head by Richard Rees.

However, the skipper and Fizzy did a superb job containing him and eventually after a recovery that saw 53 put on for the 5th wicket Usk were bowled out for 129 with Dusty getting 5-24

MOTM - Dusty
TFC - Close between Cletus and Fizzy, shaded by Cletus thanks to Fizzy's catch and wicket

I thank you

R Matthews (c)
T Baker (wk)
R Birch
G Berry
M Evans
N Reardon
W Ford
J Grubb
C Herring
S Davies
C Jones

A Shelton (c) *
L Kendall (wk)
A Clarke *
A White
M Ebdon *
R Evans
R Matthews
G Knott
R Blake *
N Hurley *
T Gane

Those marked with an asterix (*) meet at the ground at 9:30am for ground duty

Game Cancelled due to rain