Match report by Ben Nye

It was another sunny day at the Rye and sure enough the skipper kept it consistent and lost the toss. Don't worry Dave, even if we did win it, I'm sure we all would have fancied a bowl first in that heat ?

There was a certain hip hop vibe to the Bray in our opening overs. The man curating that vibe was none other than Dave 'Snoop Dogg' Emerson, who was dropping like it's hot off both Syed and Dan. It's ok Dave. As the saying goes, 'don't hate the player, hate the game' and we wouldn't criticise t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶w̶h̶o̶ ̶p̶i̶c̶k̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶m̶/̶b̶a̶t̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶r̶d̶e̶r̶ our captain.

Despite the drops, it was looking promising before Dan did himself a mischief stopping a ball and, mishearing the vibe, cried off after a promising three over opening spell. It was hip hop Dan, not hip op.

Syed's efforts at the other end were rewarded with a tidy wicket, as their opening bat made the most of his fortune to get runs in the board. Oak and Malik came into the attack and were generous enough to give us a rest in the field for them to play their own game; finally finding a wicket when a canny full toss from Oak tempted the batter into a big swing for Malik to snatch in the field.

Finally it was time for The Doggfather to come into the attack. And sure enough, Dave was upside their heads within just a couple of overs when he moved Azeem into the path of a catch the very next ball.

Owen ran through his spell at the other end with diligence, getting the breakthrough against their opening bat, taking 2 wickets overall and keeping the scoring tight as Bedford increasingly came out swinging.

On a hot and humid afternoon, the last few overs all sort of merge into a haze of big swings from Bedford. Although there was a final reward for Dave to grab 3 bonus points; leaving a slightly daunting chase of 222.

While Dave E was reppin the West Coast, Eaton Brays batting innings was all East Coast - summed up best by the 2002 Lil Jon hit, 'Get Low' (For those of a sensitive disposition/on a work computer don't Google the lyrics). Suffice it to say, the ball had a tendency to proverbially 'Get Low', which is something Mr Jon was very fond of. It was responsible for a fair few wickets, notably Jaco who was gearing up to heave a half tracker into my car, but - thankfully for my car - it died and nutmegged him into his wicket. Notable mention for Azeem too who anchored the innings with another fine 65. Although there's some debate on whether his legs or his mouth got more of a workout given the amount of chat he was getting from Bedford in the field.

When Azeem finally fell and the tail was in, it looked a little too far for the Bray to manage. Regardless Syed put in a few tidy boundaries to keep us with a sniff and Dave E looked good until Dan, fresh from his hip op, wanted a quick (suicidal) single from his captain and secured himself a batting position of 11 next game. 189/9 the end result. A day of what could have beens, but ultimately a strong showing against second in the league and positives to take into Ickwell away next week.

I'll leave the final words to one of the seminal greats of the 90's hip hop scene, Notorious BIG: "Let's climb the ladder to success, escalator style."