A week after a fairly insipid batting display consigned us to defeat, skipper Francis Bourgeois Seb Harrower won the toss and elected to bat on Lingfield's small, but picturesque 2nd ground. The opposition opened up with Forbes and Langton, and for the second week running, Dan and Connor started brightly, Dan was the senior figure in the partnership, taking a particular fancy to Langton's off spin, as the owner of the BMW X5 driving past can attest... he'll be off to the body shop to work out a 5 ¾oz dent. Dan hit 3 sixes and 2 fours in his 30, before he skied a caught and bowled back to Langton. Vib Gupta came in for his debut at no.3 and played a couple of eye catching shots, not least a cover drive for 6, but also fell c&b to Langton.

That brought the captain chugging to the crease, he together with Connor knuckled down and set the platform for a big total, Connor began to open his hairy shoulders and Seb batted calmly, putting away the bad balls - of which there were probably too many for Lingfields liking. Connor brought up a lovely 50, before being well caught by Mitchell. Seb continued on his merry way until he too was caught by Mitchell just 3 short of his half century. At that stage, with the score on 181-4, a total of 250 looked likely, but batters came and went in pursuit of quick runs - much to the chagrin of Garry "I've never played an irresponsible shot in my life" Foreman (28*) - and we had to settle for a decent 222ao.

Tea was magnificent, make your own baguettes with plenty of fillings, fresh fruit and plenty of cakes for Woosie.

We knew that Lingfield had some dangerous batters, and with the short boundaries, any total was gettable if we didn't bowl well. Fortunately Jonny came to the party early on, with a snorter to bowl Forbes in his first over. Seb struggled a little with his length, but took the wicket of Unwin, bowled aiming a violent heave to mid wicket. Opener Eason obviously hasn't seen the benefits of (Vandals sponsor) Silvermere Gymnastics, attempted to take a second run to the Vandals very own Beth Tweddle and was out by a distance, despite a valiant dive which gained a 8.5 for artistic impression.

Jonny continued probing away, bowling both Clark and Mitchell - prompting the umpire to ask "how much are you charging for this masterclass?" - and J-ames Randall announced himself to the 2023 season with a jaffa first ball that sent Jefferies off stump cartwheeling like a Silvermere Gymnastics prodigy. Jonny (4-11) and Jimmy (2-20) both picked up another wicket apiece, to leave Lingfield in the mire at 65-8, before an excellent partnership between Hooker and McKenzie restored some respectibilty to the scoreline. McKenzie was particulary dismissive of quinquagenarian Scotty Baker, taking one over for 21, before Woosie (2-25) worked off some of those cakes by dismissing the final two batters to wrap up a comfortable win by 69 runs.

A pretty dominant win, sets us up nicely to return to the home of cricket against Premier Division newcomers Sheen Park next week.