Brockley travelled to the famous Wamil Way ground to take on a Mildenhall team that comprised a mix of promising youngsters and more mature, but highly skilled gentlemen. By contrast Brockley had some promising youngsters and some older blokes.
Dan still has no idea whatsoever as to how the toss works (indeed some would say that the toss currently operates worse than his Tigra, which continues to seek a good home) Consequently Brockley found themselves fielding first on a hot day, a small pitch and against an experienced batting line up.
What could possibly go wrong?

Well, aside from the ball flying to the boundary at about 6 and over, it soon became clear that in addition to 11 very competent cricketers, Mildenhall also had a sniper: his first bullet caught Noah Boreham in the thigh as he tried in vain to stop yet another boundary.

With 60 on the board off 10 overs Brockley finally took the first wicket as Grinling finally missed out on yet another half volley from Sykes and Boreham gleefully grabbed the catch.

The joy was short lived as Sykes was the next victim of the Mildenhall Sniper, taking one to the calf and spending the next 30 overs auditioning for musical statues.

Rob Webb joined the fray and took the vital wicket of Squire with his first delivery. This was aided by a diving/falling catch by Noah despite taking a bullet to his other leg in the process. When Noah attempted a diving catch in the following over it had become clear that he was a vital part of the Brockley effort so the sniper loaded a bigger shell and that was him done for for the day.

With just 9.1 fielders it became a challenge to work out who would retrieve the ball, never mind actually stop it going for four. However, a fine spell of 12 overs from Webb and also a dozen fine overs from Joe McGann. This meant that despite a third wicket partnership of about 100, including a chanceless 50 from James Taylor, the hosts never totally got on top of a dogged Brockley side well led by captain Dan.

The innings was on a knife edge when Whiley and Walters-Smith were called upon to bowl the last 8 overs with the Home side standing on 170 for 4 and looking to cash in.

Cometh the hour, cometh the Brockley double act as Whiley finally removed Taylor for 65 and Walters Smith picked up 4 wickets for just 7 runs and Mildenhall were dismissed for 200.

In reply, Brockley started confidently as Fisher led the way with the bat and the rest of the team went off to smoke out the sniper. Both actions went well and Brockley kept close to the required rate despite some good bowling and energetic fielding.
Mildenhall never gave up and Brockley still needed 60 when the young Steggles strode to the wicket. Buoyed by having already paid his match fee he struck the ball cleanly and regularly, including one superb straight 6. His 32 not out combined with 86 from the near-veteran Fisher ensured Brockley got home with an over or two to spare.

Overall it was a competitive game played in a great spirit by both sides and it was a credit to Suffolk cricket. Mildenhall have some extremely promising young cricketers and will have many more successful days than this one.