Welbeck CC vs 3rd XI

First of all, well done to Jack Birch and Imogen Bownes on making their Clumber Park CC 3rd XI debuts and a few others that got their first senior wickets (we'll come to those later...)

We lost the toss and were put into bat by Welbeck. The two Darrens - Ridout and Spooner - opened the batting for us and worked hard to reach a fantastic milestone of a 150 run opening partnership. Darren Ridout fell for a great 35 with 10 overs to go, and Darren Spooner was bowled shortly after for a staggering score of 167 - consisting of twenty boundary fours and three huge boundary sixes! Noah Marriott (4) and Jack Birch (10*) came in at three and four respectively, before Noah was run out bringing in Michael Edwards (6*) for a final two over cameo. We ended on 243-3 off our 40 overs.

Cricket is a game of two halves and we knew Welbeck had some good batsmen in their line-up, so the captain's talk from Mike Cox ensured there was to be no complacency. There was good energy in the field with some excellent fielding across the board, Nathan in particular pulled out some impressive stops. Imogen Bownes and Matt Hampshire opened our bowling attack. Imogen bowled an impressive spell taking her first wicket of the season to finish with figures of 1-8 off her 5 overs. Matt (3 overs, 1-13) also took his first senior wicket, before having to cut short his spell due to injury. Despite this, Matt continued to work hard in the field and contributed with a solid catch at gully. Jasper Spooner (5 overs, 1-10) took over from Imogen and bowled impressively for such a young lad, deservedly taking his maiden senior wicket. Nathan Morley (5 overs, 0-23) replaced Matt and despite struggling with the left handed line, he had another good spell of bowling with evident swing. At drinks, we had reduced Welbeck to 60-4 which was testament to our bowling and fielding.
Samodh Nadkarni (5 overs, 1-25) entered the attack and continued with the trend of our juniors taking their first senior wickets from an excellent caught & bowled to claim one of the opposition's top batsman! Michael Edwards (6 overs, 2-5), our seasoned junior, carried on from where he left off last weekend and bowled another superb spell, picking up 2 wickets and his first for the season. This spell included the wicket of their top scorer and 3 maidens, great work Michael. In next was Noah Marriott (5 overs, 0-21), also bowling to their top batsmen. Whilst finishing wicketless, Noah bowled straight and well to cap off a good day in the field for him. Last but not least, Jack Birch (6 overs, 0-21) was introduced into the bowling unit as he was welcomed back into the club. After a confident start with the bat, he also looked good with the ball as he was close to getting their top batsman out twice! There will definitely be wickets to come for Jack throughout the season - watch this space...

Our tight bowling and sharp fielding reduced Welbeck to a final score of 143-6 after their full 40 overs - meaning a 100 run win for the 3rd XI! This makes it two wins from two matches and two great bowling and fielding displays from our juniors. It is worth pointing out that all the overs bowled by the 3rd XI so far have been by U15s which is what the 3rd XI is all about - junior development.

Next weekend, the 3rd XI will hope to make it three wins out of three as they host Cuckney CC on the Paddocks ground.