William Arthur Ward (Like an old-school Tony Robbins) once stated: "Adversity causes some men to break: others to break records".

If The Peckers were to achieve their record 9th win on the bounce in the charming village of Chiddingfold, they would have to overcome the adversity of searing 28-degree heat, 2 x wedding hangovers, a tropical storm, a 9am finish and a Snax shoulder injury.

On any typical day, these would have been the excuses to justify a performance, but this was no ordinary day and no regular venue. Aside from being the quintessential village ground with oak framed pavilion and village fete down the road, Chiddingfold also invested in technology. The Frog Box is now a regular in our season, transmitting play from Spain to Sevenoaks and on to Singapore, at one point pulling in a global audience of 5. The frog box, the Zing wickets, and full light em-up capabilities would be deployed for this Sunday fixture. One thing that couldn't be deployed for this fixture was Snax's bowling; he rightly informed the Chiddingfold chairman that due to his shoulder injury, he would be playing as a batsman………at the time of that statement, he was batting at 10.

So to the dice shake, which skipper Pobs won and elected to bat. Pobs perceived our batting lineup was solid, plus we only had 4 players at the start of play, so a good toss to win.

Merry and Kamikaze, "former School of Rugby pairing," now pairing to lead the Peckers out. Merry showing no signs of his 9 am finish, not externally, anyway. Kamikaze fresh from a 50 the previous day for Battersea Ironsides, Pobs's optimism was looking well placed.

Chiddingfold was fielding a team of youth under the heat of the hottest days of the year, and they were about to feel the warmth of Kamikaze in full destructive mode. 2 years ago, Henners was responsible for damaging the adjacent Chiddingfold school roof; Kaze went a few tiles higher and destroyed several tiles more than H Bomb's previous 6. (Apparently, it costs the club a few £100 a year, the sound on the YouTube video is worth a watch). Whilst Kaze was racing to 40 off only 5 overs, the 9am finish and muggy conditions were getting to Merry; whilst his previous 3 nicks had gone for 4, one went to the keeper, caught behind for 10. This bought Kwakka to the crease and simultaneously Snax to umpire.

Chiddingfold's Captain Sol bowled his very 1st ball of his 1st over and wrapped Kamikaze on the pads; no sooner had they started their appeal before Snax had raised his finger; this was to be the 1st record of the day, the fastest decision, the fastest finger. Snax would umpire for 2 more overs, one at square leg narrowly missing death and a 7 ball over for good measure; his focus was clearly on batting.

The dismissal of Kamikaze had brought Henners to the crease; on his previous visit, he'd finished the game with a destructive 80; on this day, it looked even more damaging. Henners got to 50 in 16 balls, replacement balls needed to be found, 5 trips were made into the school and neighbouring cottages, the run rate was up around 10 per over, and quite the joy to watch from the non-striker's end. One other pleasure when batting with Henners is that you are likely to get a few of his runs added to your score; Kwakka would be the lucky eventual recipient of 10 of Henner's runs, so whilst he mistimed a pull to mid-on for 82, his actual score was 92 off 32 balls. That was one record that evaded us on this day, the fastest Pecker hundred.

Kwakka and Moley were now at the crease, and, whilst unable to maintain the 10 an over rate, a 9 per over was building an intimidating score for Child. Kwakka's early nurdling of the ball now evolves to more fluid shots before holing out to square leg for 78 (although on a count back and with video, it was 68)

Kwakka celebrates with the Mole whilst Chef-rey Epstein looks on

Mole and Grease are now at the crease with 243/3 on the board and 9 overs left; Moley starting to go through the gears into the 20s before trying to work one of the back feet lit up the zing stumps for the 1st time, bowled for 21. This brought Snax, "the batsman version", to the middle.

Snax prepares for the big knock with alfie

Greasy asked, "Is this the collapse?" a loud appeal for Snax 1st ball for caught behind, Kamikaze umpiring, and turned down the opportunity for revenge. Greasy next holed out to a "worldy" of a catch at deep square leg for 1; Snax would follow 3 balls later, lbw for 4, fingered by Walpole, and the collapse was very much on at 251/7.

The vegetable patch of Spinach and Butternut were now at the crease together, having endured a scorching and late finish at a wedding the night before and a scorching and long 2 1/2 hour drive up from Dorset; odds were that they'd suffer in the searing heat. Nothing of the sort, they set about slashing the Chiddingfold attack and running aggressively between the wickets.

A temporary break in proceedings for a tropical downpour meant they and all of us could enjoy a truly 1st class tea procured from the Crown Inn, Chiddingfold (a historic and beautiful pub). The coronation chicken sandwich being the benchmark of cricket tea evaluation was confirmed as being of the highest quality, as was the Victoria sponge (3 layers), which presented a test of discipline not to go for a 5th slice (Henners made it to 4). The picture may not do justice to this fine tea; it was a joy.

When play resumed, 4 overs remained, Vegetable Patch replenished and refreshed, set about the Chiddingfold attack and muscled us to 283 into the last over before Butternut was run out for 9. Pobs saw out the final over with Spinach, who smashed an excellent 22 not out and protected his own red ink. Peckers finished 288/8 off 35 overs.

Now was our turn to bowl and the start of an extraordinary session. Opening up from the top end was a peaky-looking Spinach who was not as regal as he usually appears after a batting stint and a heavy tea. In his 2nd over, with a score of 6, his appeal for lbw ( on one knee) was given. Just moments earlier, Pobs had switched out Merry for Kamikaze in the gully, quoting, "You're too short for gully". The next ball, a slash to gully, was pocketed by Kamikaze at chest height, diving to his left. Hatrick ball and the obligatory "all in" yielded an oooh but nothing more; the field now pushed back, Spinach dug in a half-tracker, halfway up the batsman's bat, Pobs scampers round, dives forward and snatches wicket 3 in the over for Spinach. Chiddingfold 6 for 3.

It was only one over later when Spinach's bowling leg stump yielded his 4th wicket, and the Zing stumps lit up. Meanwhile, at the other end, Greasy continued to bend his back with impressive pace and bounce and was rewarded with a wicket, caught by Butternut, Chiddingfold 14 for 5. At this point, Pobs started to contemplate an unthinkable record? "No dropped catches"

Before we could get too giddy, we would celebrate a well-deserved first, Spinach's 1st 5 for, final wicket, another lbw and figures of 5-10 off 4 overs. For those of us that have witnessed spinach slog away with sometimes little reward, this was a delight to behold, fast, straight and backed up by the field.

At 18/6 and chasing another 271 for the win, it was fair that Chiddingfold felt the game was slipping away from them; the change of bowling with Chef and Butternut gave little for Chiddingfold to capitalise on and in Butternuts, 2nd over a thick edge from the Chiddingfold captain gave a sharp chance at slip to Greasy…pocketed what a catch. Butternut followed up with an equal opportunity for Greasy next over, juggled and dropped on this occasion; the no dropped catches record will have to wait.

In the next over from the opposite end, Chef-frey Epstein looped one outside off stump, fine edge and flew to Kamikaze at slip, taken, extraordinary, Chiddingfold 31 for 8.

Once Butternut made the Zing stumps light up next over, Pobs shared that we looked suitable for another record: most significant margin of victory. Just one wicket to go, some fine batting from their young 11 saw out Butternuts' final over with a lusty 4, leaving Chef to take one final lbw and Chiddingfold all out for 39.

So there we had it, a record 9th win in a row. Also, a new record for the biggest margin of victory of 249 runs smashing the old record of 226 v Ripley in 2015. This clearly dwarfed the weekend's other achievements of Djokavic's 23rd grand slam victory and Manchester City's treble, we were led off the field by Spinach for a well-deserved Michelle, and we look forward to being led to Withyham next week with our own Pob Guardiola.

https://woodpeckers.play-cricket.com/website/results/5536176

Videos of all wickets and boundaries can be viewed here