7th June 2008

We won the toss and decided to bat. We started well, with the run rate at around 4 per over for the early part of the innings. The pitch was a bit uneven; Adam Strick in particular was unlucky in playing back to a ball short off a length, only to be bowled by a ball that didn’t bounce above knee high.

Richard Brown batted through the rest of the innings for a hard hit 70, running out of partners with several overs left of the innings. The tail didn’t wag much. On a small ground our total of 158 did not look particularly competitive.

Our opening bowlers started well. Ryan Cooper bowled a good line and length, with Shaun Carter’s left arm around the wicket seam bowling giving the opposition something to think about at the other end.

After 12 overs our seam attack was replaced with off spin at both ends – Pete Thomas bowled well and the opposition only scored runs by taking a chance and hitting the ball in the air. Pete was unlucky not to take any wickets. The skipper took 2 wickets, but the St Gluvias batsmen were keeping up with the required run rate.

We brought our opening bowlers back on to see what they could do to the St Gluvias middle order. By this time the pitch had become two paced and the batsmen seemed to lose interest in playing on the front foot – Shaun Carter took 2 wickets in quick succession and Ryan Cooper was unlucky not to dismiss the Number 6 batsman LBW, the umpire believing the batsman had nicked the ball onto his pad.

We dropped 4 catches and were unable to control the run rate. St Gluvias passed our score with around 10 overs left to win by 6 wickets. Once again we dropped several catches. The game was played in good spirit and umpired well by Charlie Allen and Simon Platt.

Paul Ladner
2nd XI captain

12th June 2008