1st XI's Close & Tense Clash with Milton CC

We bowled first, after winning the toss, and Milton CC got off to a steady start before Simon Dean came on and reeled off a great 8 over spell of 2-20. He received excellent support from Ben Tomlinson (7 overs, 1-17), who went for just one boundary in his spell.
Jasper Dennison came on, bowling arguably his best 1st XI spell taking 1-25 from his 7 overs, and Ed Foulds entered the fray to claim 2-27 off of his 6 overs. With a couple of run-outs (Simon throwing in from the boundary and smart work from Hayden Cox and James Davies behind the stumps) and great fielding threw into the mix, top of the league Milton wobbled to 125-8. In cricket, small margins matter, so when Ed had what we felt was a plumb LBW turned down, it was inevitable that 30 minutes later the Milton CC tail would have edged and whacked its way to a decent 165-8 by the close. Despite the frustrations of the last few overs it was still a fine effort by our 1st XI.

We were missing a couple of our batsmen today but if we were to build decent partnerships we'd be competitive. We started nicely and reached 24 without alarm before Mark Dean (5) got adjudged LBW and Ben Tomlinson (5) was caught. Ed Foulds (42) and James Davies (28) put on a brilliant stand to take us to 94, until, alas, Ed was bowled from a beautiful delivery and then James fell in the next over! This triggered a mini-collapse as we slumped to 107-7.
However, in a brilliant, tense finale 16-year-old Zak Berridge (24*) and veteran Mike Cox (14) refused to give up, taking us to 144 before Mike fell. Now, 22 was needed off of 2 and a bit overs but with Zak at the crease, it quickly became 12 required from the last over. The first ball, Hayden Cox (6) creamed it for 4 through backwards point! 8 off of 5... We were desperate for a bit of luck like Milton CC had had in their final overs, but sadly it didn’t go our way as our last 2 wickets fell in the frantic quest for the final few runs.

Although gutting to lose, it was a cracking effort from all for 9 points. Special mention to Zak for his brilliant effort of trying to get us over the line with perseverance and maturity, and also James Davies for stepping up as wicketkeeper and not conceding any byes at all.

Next weekend, the 1st XI play against Retford CC at home from 1pm.