Saturday saw the 3’s head to ‘one man Mersea’ on a beautiful day for a game of cricket. After finding the way there and the panic of seeing the batter from a fortnight ago, people felt better to see that both Mersea teams were playing at home. Which meant a trek with full gear from the changing rooms to the back of beyond to find the second pitch. It took captain Calum longer than most, leaving captain Karl to save the day, win the toss and deciding to bat under the glare of the Frogbox camera.
As Johnston and Spalding took to the pitch to set an early example the first ball of the innings shot down the leg side for four byes and it was an optimistic start before Spalding unfortunately on the third ball missed a 'hit me straight' full toss and found himself bowled. As a man who was only here to bat because he couldn’t bowl this is a crushing blow. This brought Captain Calum to the crease and, having never batted with Johnston before the two of them started to build a partnership of epic proportions.
Calum could only see out of one eye and was doing his best impression of PJ from PJ and Duncan whilst Johnston at the other end was his usual swashbuckling self. Both batsmen engaged in a cover drive competition with agreement being reached that the cover drive Johnston played was the prettier out of the two drives whilst Callum played his usual orthodox way. They continued to build a partnership with respect to the opening bowlers.
For the sake of posterity, it needs to be noted to that in one over alone Johnston play three forward defensive shots and saw out a maiden. The pair also ran a 3 in the scorching heat.
After seeing off the opening bowlers, it was then time for the opposition to introduce a change of pace. From one end pace continued and Johnston attacked anything short, cutting to the offside boundary with regularity including putting out his lesser seen shot of cutting down to gully from middle stump. MacLeod continued to find gaps in the field and with the introduction of spin from the other end both batsmen continued to dominate the bowlers.
Unfortunately, MacLeod once again I found that 50 was simply a number he refuses to accept either in life or cricket and played on off his pad this week for a very well batted 41 and a partnership with Johnston of 114 - not bad for a man with one working eye.
By this point Johnston had passed his 50, the first of the season for the club and engaged in more blunting of the attack. He was joined at the crease by Jamie Foyster who caused complication with his left-handed batting before the bowler changed his angle with attack to round the wicket and suddenly started spearing balls in at Foysters feet. After being forced to run a two by Johnston when Foyster was quite happy to amble a one, he was eventually undone by a Yorker which he could do little about.
This brought Jay Singh to the crease and another change of bowling with Dibley Dobbly bowling the likes of which Johnston hates to face brought on. Knowing the difficulties that would likely to follow Johnston then took a somewhat unorthodox approach of refusing to bat down that end of the wicket. This included much hilarity with Spalding the umpire when Johnston either turned down very easy singles or engaged in suicidal running with Singh (who thankfully was a very willing accomplice) to ensure that he was at the correct to face the Dibley Dobbly.
Unfortunately like all good things and having batted for over 20 overs in the searing heat for his best ever score in adult cricket, Johnston was finally bowled going for one big hit too many - his 91 coming off just 76 balls and including 17 4’s. While the century was just out of reach, the effort was more than just runs - it was a thrilling, hilarious and utterly unexpected plot twist in the season - watched on by club members around the county.
This left the innings at 163-4. Unfortunately, Will Sherry once again attracted a very good ball and was bowled, with nothing he could do about it. A fantastic batter who will only get stronger the more he plays for the team.
This brought Shub Alhat to bat with Jay Singha. As anticipated from those who have been lucky enough to see or bat with either one this season, absolute chaos ensued. Shub picked up where he left off against Mersea last time, having dominated them in his maiden 50 not out last time and striking 15 off just 11 balls before being LBW. Unfortunately, in this time there was also a mix up with Singh, who was composing an innings himself, leading to his run out.
With both batters out, it was left for captain Karl to marshall the tail. Unfortunately he was also undone by the slower bowling, having played a conservative innings trying to bat the overs, and playing a shot roughly 40 minutes before the ball actually reached him.
The youngsters in the tail acquitted themselves well, batting with respect, with Joe Chaplin adding another boundary to his season’s total be for being caught out, with Lyra MacLeod soon following caught at cover.
This left the team on 191 on a tricky pitch. And tea. Whilst not provided, the availability of £1 ice creams from the pavilion has to be recommended.

The second innings, knowing early breakthroughs were vital had one eye Calum from one end, and Thomas Mellon roaring in from the other, having apparently grown another couple of inches since his last display. Both bowlers were accurate, but unfortunately the experienced batters were able to use the extra pace of Mellon to glance the ball to the boundary.
Looking to make a change the ball was thrown to Golden Arm Chaplin. A player who laughs in the face of pressure and anything that might have come before him, and simply bowls. He once again created the breakthrough, bowling the opener and keeping it constantly tight.
At the other end Robbie ‘I can’t bowl’ Spalding had decided that he wasn’t going to let his match be over at 1:01 after his batting innings, and signalled that he thought maybe he had a couple of balls in him. Unfortunately his bowling shoes took this literally and fell apart after 2 balls.
Like the legend he is, Spalding simply laughed, fetched what looked suspiciously like loafers from the boundary, and the proceeded to bowl 10 overs of some of the more accurate bowling seen in the division. He had the dangerous opener LBW at 100-2 and shortly after had the next man caught behind before he could settle, leaving Mersea 109-3 and potentially in trouble.
The bowling was then mixed up as we strove for more wickets, with Lyra MacLeod coming on to bowl some of her spin and use the pitch, with captain Karl also having a bowl to try and create chances.
Finally, as the batters became set the beacons of Gondor were lit, and Mr Chairman himself, Jamie Foyster came on to bowl. Sadly by this point the batters showed their experience and they knocked off the final runs with time to spare.
Spalding ended the pick of the bowlers with 2-29 off his 10 overs, but young Chaplin getting the other wicket and bowling a miserly spell of 1-22 off 6.2 overs showing the successful youth policy the third team strive to encourage.
Another learning experience for the team, but many positives - Mellon’s pace and Lyra getting more overs under her belt. The fielding standards and chat being high throughout.
And Johnston’s performance with the bat. Have we talked enough about that???