Defeat from the jaws of Victory

Skipper Tongie lost the toss and we were asked to field only having 8 men present it wasnt a shock.
The missing men were Kai & Martin prolonging their holiday to the max, Nathan was still missing.Jay dunning was on his 3rd birthday of the year work that one out.
Higham & Ashcroft opened the bowling, they bowled a decent spell and when the Hodgie boys eventually turned up cocktails in hand Kai took an easy catch in the gulley ( he made it easy by his speed over the ground - only Tongie & myself the only other players who would have got near it honest )
Ashcroft then removed the dangerous tierney caught behind . Bradshaws keeper batted well and was eventually caught on the edge by first team potential danny "knocking on the door" higham.
The team of 10 fielded well and in hindsight we should have stole one of the 3rd team lads or rang the older of the houghton boys who would have done a good job for us ...96 was the target
Trowie ( nearly 21 ) and Charlie ( man of the match ) opened the batting. Charlie got a royal LBW .....jp came in at 3
Trowie & Jp looked ok at the crease and took the score to 30 , where upon Trowie playing an expansive exra cover drive and was caught for about a dozen.Harry joined me at the crease and began to play like he had a train to catch. Jp got 24 and nicked a wide one to the keeper and walked ....yes walked
My excuse is the bowler was running up and pulling a funny face and i had only just stated this to the umpire the ball before...not a happy bunny
Harry hit a sky six and was caught .
Kai came and went with a drive through mid wicket which he missed .
Danny ( knocking on the door ) was caught at mid on again...Tongie & Hodgie came together and batted very well until the score was 94
Then Hodgie who has been a champion & one of our top batters all season... played a poor shot and was caught at mid on a yard either side and we were home .
This brought in Wasim who is consistent at being inconsistent ( one day tendulkar and one day not ) This was a not day and he showed no shot and was given out LBW ...but not to worry we still had Si Alton Ashcroft to come ... worry.. he got bowled for O ....Garry Tonge was left high and dry and a word not generally associated with him "sensible" he had batted sensibly please take note.....future stars
We had lost !! how disappointing to lose to a side we had battered for 95% of the game
Too many Hero shots ....We must learn how to win UGLY
Regards JP ( all my own work sorry for being honest )
Nathan still missing !!