1st XI's Defeat in the Heat

We won the toss and elected to bat on what was set to be a beautiful hot summer afternoon. Our opening batsmen, Ed Foulds (18) and Simon Bingham (14) started well putting on 40 runs from the first ten overs before Simon was caught out. Ed was next to fall, after posting 27 in a partnership with Dave Beard (24). The core of our middle order collectively scored 8 runs between them, as Retford's star bowler, who finished with a 6 fer, hit us hard. Captain, Mark Dean (16), came in and steadied the ship for around 10 overs before being dismissed. Ben Perkins (7) and Zak Berridge (4) added a few runs on at the end, but both were caught out which resulted in Retford bowling us all out for 126 off of 33.2 overs.

To defend our total, we opened our bowling attack with Zak Berridge and Ben Perkins. Zak bowled a fantastic first spell of 6 overs 0-9 with 3 maidens, which along with Ben's equally good bowling kept Retford down to 22 from the first 10 overs. In trying to get a breakthrough wicket, first change bowlers Ben Tomlinson (4 overs 0-30) and Mark Dean (7 overs 1-21) were brought on, where Mark was successful by getting their captain and opener out. At the halfway point, Retford was at 68-1. Our opening bowlers came back on for a second spell and Zak got their other opener out with his first ball, but as he had just reached his half-century in the previous over the damage was already done. Zak finished with figures of 8 overs 1-21 and Ben with 7 overs 0-28. Ed Foulds (3.2 overs 2-11) came on at the end and bowled well to pick up two wickets, one caught & bowled and one bowled.

In the 34th over Retford knocked off our score and won by 6 wickets. We were able to pick up a valuable five bonus points (3 batting, 2 bowling).

The 1st XI hopes to put an end to their recent bad run of luck and turn things around with a win next weekend against Milton CC at home.