Third Win On The Bounce for the 2nd XI!

To set the scene, our 2nd XI's team for this match consisted of 2 x 14-year-olds, 3 x 15-year-olds and 1 x 16-year-old! Then there was Matt Smith and David Bownes, who don’t play week in week out, helping out, which made a massive difference.

Skipper, Darren Edwards, won the toss and elected to field on a red hot summers day. This decision was quickly followed by chants of, "sack the skipper," from some of the cheeky juniors!

Darren opened the bowling alongside Dan Fotheringham, with both bowling good lines and lengths. Off of the first 11 overs, Clipstone & Bilsthorpe CC were restricted to 22-0. The first wicket came as Callum Edwards was brought into the attack, clean bowling one of their star players. Callum continued to bowl well, finishing with figures of 3-27 from 8 overs, including a great stumping from the 2nd XI's ever-improving wicket-keeper, Evan Bownes. At the other end, Matt Smith (1-14) bowled 4 great overs and was rewarded with a wicket, opening his account for Clumber Park CC. The next bowling change gave the opportunity to our 14-year-olds, Michael Edwards and Tom Paintain. They were both superb; Michael taking two wickets and Tom taking one. David Freeman also bowled beautifully, taking a fantastic 3-9 off of 4.1 overs!!! Our incredible bowling and fielding performance ended with us bowling them all out for 109 from 37.1 overs.

Callum Edwards (5) and Evan Bownes (21) opened the batting, seeing off the openers before Callum was caught. Batsmen 3, Dan Fotheringham, came in to replace him on a pitch where runs appeared to be hard to come by. Evan and Dan stuck in there until Evan was bowled for 21, a great effort. Charlie Shelton (13) and Darren Edwards (8) came in and supported Dan.
With 6 overs left the 2nd XI needed 27 to win! Jake Tomlinson (4) contributed to the innings before being bowled, bringing in Tom Paintain.
Dan, as cool as a cucumber, was still at the crease going about his business, scoring from the bad balls and nicely rotating the strike with Tom.

Dan went on to make his maiden half-century and ended the match with two glorious fours with one over remaining!!! Dan’s 57* was described by Captain, Darren Edwards, as 'an absolute masterclass' and not once did he give Clipstone & Bilsthorpe a chance to take his wicket. Furthermore, it was brilliant to see his teammates running up to congratulate him after the match!!!

That’s 3/3 wins for the 2nd XI now, as they continue to keep climbing the table. And, as is said every week, it is great to see the junior players developing and having such a contribution to the results. The 2nd XI hopes to continue this winning streak with another 20 points, as they play Papplewick & Linby CC at home next Saturday.

P.S. Casting our minds back to the start of this report, you will remember the juniors were chanting 'abuse' at the skipper for his decision to field in the heat after winning the toss. Following the result, Darren was very smug in telling them not to doubt him!