Sunday XI Victorious in Top of the Table Clash

Today we had the rare and unfortunate event of two men heading off to A&E before the 1st innings was complete, one of which was our Charlie Birch who suffered a horrible dislocated shoulder. Massive thanks to the Perkins and Bownes families for their help in getting Charlie up to the hospital where they’ve been sorting him out. He says he’s on the mend and seems in good spirits in the group chat so that's great news and everyone at CPCC sends their best wishes for a quick recovery. More from the Birch family later in the report...

We won the toss and elected to bat first. Within the first half-an-hour, we were inundated with a number of poor decisions - James Davies got given caught behind when he was nowhere near it, Evan Bownes (14) fell LBW despite a big edge and lastly, Simon Bingham (20) got triggered LBW too despite being about 17 yards down the track!
We found ourselves at 50-5 and were in trouble. However, Ben Perkins played brilliantly to lead the comeback. Stand-in Captain, Mark Dean (25), gave him support and together they thought if they could get over 120, there could be a chance. In partnership, they added about 60 or 70 to the score before Mark fell first, followed by Ben with a well deserved 52!
Simon Dean (11*) and Zak Berridge (9*) chipped in at the end as we posted 151-8 from the 40 overs.

Norton Oakes CC came out full of energy in their reply. Ben Perkins (8 overs, 2-22) and Zak Berridge (6 overs, 1-7) opened our bowling attack, and both struck to get us off to a good start. The highlight of the innings, though, was definitely young Jack Birch coming on to bowl at first change and reeling off figures of 5 overs 3-6!!! What a great contribution Jack, well done! And he couldn't keep out of the action as he then held on to a good catch as Mark Dean (2 overs, 2-8) picked up a couple of wickets. Mark's other wicket came from a brilliant back-peddling overhead catch from Steve Tomlinson, complete with an accompanying stunt roll! James Davies (3 overs, 0-6) and Steve Tomlinson (2 overs, 0-4) bowled a few tidy overs each, but it was Simon Dean (3.3 overs, 1-9) who came on and wrapped up the game with the final wicket. Norton Oakes CC finished 84 all out from 29.3 overs.

A great 67 run for the Sunday XI, as they claim the maximum 20 points on offer. Best of luck next weekend, as the team travels away to Hundall CC.