All Stars Left With Nothing but Regrets vs Ham East.

The All-Stars were the few-stars this week, with a few missing players replaced by enthusiastic ring-ins!

Still, we'd be playing well and it was a good chance for other players to step up and do a job.

We needed to bat and got our way. The skipper promoted himself to open with Brendan (ignoring the dissent) and we were under way.

We were 31/1 after 7 and 50-odd for 3 when Eban strode to the wicket. They seemed intent on bowling half trackers to Eb, and he was enjoying increasing his score in multiples of 4.

We were looking good at 98/3 when the wheels flew off! Eb played about a second to late on a dirty half tracker and gloved to the keeper, John came and went on a leading edge, and Dave holed out with the score still on 98. 98/6 in 16.

Jared didn't seem to grasp the concept of making sure we batted our overs and we were 104/7.

The tail included a guy who hadn't played cricket in 10 years and 2 guys who hadn't played ever, so optimism was in short supply. But Dan did a great job and eeked us out another 40 runs - all out for 143.

The four senior guys in the team all got starts, but no-one went on with it - leaving us well short of a good total.

Still, there are plenty of stories about teams defending small totals. Hamilton East appear to suffer from some sort of collective personality disorder and had provided plenty of motivation to get stuck into them. So with some choice words from Dave we hoed into them.

Eb and Dave opened the bowling - Eb was bowling quick and bending it around, while Dave was crafty at the other end. Our positive approach was putting the squeeze on and we had the buggers 40/4 after 9 overs and had them well and truly spooked.

The highlight was a brilliant take off an under-edge from stand in keeper Brendan, who distinguished himself and and may find himself with the gloves again (when he can walk).

We went for it and bowled Dave and Eb out - after 14 overs they were 72 for five and looking vulnerable. They only had 10, so another 4 wickets would see us home.

The skipper picked up a wicket in his first over, (three to go now) but there was a problem at the other end, as we were well short of bowling. Jimmy was tried and discarded. Batting hero Dan was next cab off the rank and was pretty dire (although he did have their remaining quality batsman dropped). 50 odd runs leaked away at one end -and that was pretty much it.

Yap picked up a consolation wicket, leaving us tantalisingly close - but it wasn't to be and the end came next over.

A day of regrets! Wish we'd batted better and for longer - wish we'd held onto a couple of catches, wish I'd tried Jared first!

Anyhoo, the loss makes the Senior C ladder very interesting with our closest rivals going down to Burbs on the adjoining wicket.

Team	Points
HBHS 7th X1	34
Ham Star	34
Ham East	34
Suburbs	25

Next week - top of the table clash with HBHS 7th 11 on Steele 1. Both teams will be smarting after losses so it should be a good day out. - Hopefully we'll have a bit more artillery to wheel out.