Bath CC 1st XI captain Robin Lett gives his take on life at North Parade...
The club has yet to lose a competitive game of cricket this season after another successful weekend of results.
While the 2nd and 3rd XI games were both lost to rain, the 4ths produced an excellent all-round display to beat Midsomer Norton by seven wickets.
Beth Howe produced superb figures of 5-11 from her six overs and was also in action for the Wanderers on Sunday. The ladies beat Loughton by five wickets to maintain their solid start to the season.
However, the performance of the weekend came, once again, from 16-year-old Tim Rouse on Saturday.
We had one of those days against Illminster where we just didn't click. There seemed to be a lack of intensity in our game and we deservedly found ourselves in deep trouble in reply to the visitors' 122 all out – a total which was, in truth, about 40 too many.
The previous week Tim came in at 24-3 and this time it was 15-3. Yet the severity of the situation seemed lost on him and, with others losing their heads all around, he batted with class and composure beyond his years.
He was joined by number ten Jon Green at 95-8 with 28 still required but the pair steadily brought the total down and we edged over the line with Rousey on 45 not out.
There were few celebrations as we hit the winning runs, though. We set high standards for ourselves at Bath Cricket Club and we didn't reach those on Saturday.
The pleasing news for us is that we had the perfect reaction on Sunday despite our National Knockout game with Frocester being abandoned after just nine overs.
Having waited around for three hours, we finally agreed on a 25-over game and we were exceptional in the time we were on the field. We took three quick wickets, with Will Jenkins in particular looking very dangerous.
We will start again on Sunday but the message we sent out to our old rivals is a clear one.
We'll look to build on that feelgood factor when we take on Bristol in the league on Saturday.
