Willoughby 2nds Vs St Crispin & Ryelands

The trip to St Cripsin and Rylands was tough last year and with this being last chance saloon for them they turned up with a very strong team, one on paper that should be challenging for promotion. Stand in skipper Fergus Deery lost his 2nd toss in a row and the team were stuck in on what resembled a rugby picth rather than cricket, the square however was sandwiched in between the rugby and football picthes on offer.

SC&R had a full compliment of bowling options and immediatly put us under huge pressure on a very tough batting pitch. Mainstay Anushul Satsangi (28) was the only batter at the top of the order who could stay for any amount of time and was eventually dismissed at 52 for 4 off 21 painful overs. SC&R still kept bowling tight lines as we were fed scraps, it was another fantastic innings again from Aiden Porter (43) who put on 61 for the 6th wicket aided by James Andrews (17). After a last 5 over rally the team found themselves 151 for 7 which was a excellent recovery effot.

With the pitch playing up as it was, Rees Moor fancied himself to make early inroads and caused issues in tandem with Ryan Lines and Matt Sutton. After a solid enough start SC&R were 74-4 at the 20 over mark with the game still right in the balance. There were key wickets, Fergus Deery dismissed the leagues leading run scorer Carter early with Hylands and Hurle also back in the pavillion who had very solid knocks in the reverse fixture. With a total of 13 maidens bowled after the drinks break SC&R found runs difficualt to come by, at one stage they only socred 25 runs in a 10 over period. As you would expect there was a rally from 96 for 6 to 133 for 7 with Smith being drafted into the game, a solid 24 which made things even tighter. But the team did preval with some brilliant bowling figures, Moor 2-28, Lines 1-25 and Sutton 2-23 all bowling their alloted 10 overs each.

The 2nds move onto Geddington next week with 2 key fixtures with Bold and Old in the next few weeks which will define the season.