Collective Team Effort Rewards 1st XI with 20 Points!

Farnsfield CC won the toss and stuck our 1st XI in to bat first. They gained an early advantage as our opening batsmen, Simon Bingham, took a nasty blow to the finger off a quick-rising delivery. Bravely and despite being in obvious pain, he carried on until falling shortly afterwards for 4 runs. Our other opener, Ed Foulds, and number three batsman, Dave Beard, rebuilt fantastically, putting together a chanceless century partnership to take us past 100 before Dave fell for a fine 46 in the 22nd over. Dave Taylor (DT) then joined Ed at the crease and together they continued with the good work. Ed was really warming up and everyone was wishing for him to get those 11 runs to get him to his maiden 1st XI century, but sadly it wasn't to be as he fell for 89 with the score on 178. A brilliant knock nevertheless - well done, Ed! James Davies (22) came in and treated us to a nice little cameo, as he and DT built up another great partnership of 40 for the 4th wicket in the closing stages.
Batting partnerships - whether it's 100 or 25, you really can't beat them! Today our batting unit produced successive partnerships of 109, 63 and 40 - top effort!
DT played some lovely shots to finish on 39* as we closed on 229-5 from our 37 overs.

With the ball, our bowling attack produced arguably their best collective display of the season as they kept outstanding focus and patience in conditions where there was very little swing or seam movement to help.
Zak Berridge (8 overs, 2-32) struck first, but their dangerman Joseph West (28) took Farnsfield CC up to 58 with some powerful strokes before being caught behind off of Hayden Cox's (7 overs, 1-31) bowling. At 88-2, and with nothing to lose, Farnsfield were coming at us hard and were very much still in the game. Therefore, extra praise needs to go to Ben Tomlinson who bowled his best spell since early on in the season, with excellent discipline and not being put off by their aggressive batting. He clean bowled their number 4 and then Bingo (with a taped-up, throbbing finger) dived full length to catch one at mid-on, giving Ben his second wicket. A third soon followed and Ben finished with figures of 3-35 off of 7 overs!
In between all of this, Dave produced a fantastic direct hit run out to dismiss their opener, Richardson, for 37. At the other end, Simon Dean bowled his best spell for some time, conceding only 1 boundary in his 7 over spell with figures of 1-27. To put this into context, Farnsfield CC were 88-2 at the start of the 19th over, and 11 overs later with Ben and Simon in tandem, they were reduced to 131-7! Absolutely brilliant!
Zak came back on at the end to claim his second wicket and Ed (1.5 overs, 2-15) came on and got the last two as Farnsfield finished all out for 176. 20 points for CPCC!

Ed's batting performance and the entire bowling unit deserve the praise today, but here are some special mentions to finish:
Dave Beard - fantastic captain's wingman: runs, catches, a stumping and a brilliant run out!
Simon Bingham - an asset to the team by being a great presence in the batting lineup and for literally giving his all in the field.
Evan Bownes - thank you for sub-fielding when Ben had to go off.
Don Williams - thank you, as always, for scoring week in, week out.
Our supporters - thank you for coming to watch and support, it is appreciated.

Next weekend, the 1st XI travel away to Milton CC, who are currently flying, having just gone top of the league. It will be a tough test, but let's take it on, keeping this performance in mind as a blueprint for how to achieve success.