Willoughby CC VS Southam CC

Very delighted to welcome Southam to The Green for the first senior game of the season. Was a very cold / windy morning so everyone arrived in triple layers wondering whether we had the right day. A late drop out saw Mark Fell into the team to make us back to 11.

Ben Hollis tossed up and lost and was asked to bowl first.
Jake Quinney and Dan Farrow opened the bowling attack and looked fit and fresh, Dan taking a early wicket dismissing their opener for 7. Short sharp spells was the plan for the bowling, get everyone involved and everyone to get their arm over.

Michael Deery was into the attack early on, bowled a good 4 over spell with a few close LBW shouts and got the batsmen opening up , but unfortunately nothing to hand 0-29 off 4. Mark Fell probably had the most unusual day of his cricketing career with the ball, bowling from the wrong end due to the wind, first over got hit for 6 over extra, had a LBW shout, bowled a full toss and bowled a double bouncer. He soon found his form and started where he finished off last year, bowling lovely hoops causing all sorts of problems. Some awesome keeping from one of the new players Anshul to get a stumping for Mark to finish his spell 5-27 off 6.

Skipper Ben Hollis got his arm over partnered with Nikesh Mistry at the other end , Ben finished on 0-6 off 4 with 2 maidens. Nikesh worked his magic from ball 1 earning himself 2 wickets. Jake replaced Ben and done the damage with the ball and cleaned up the remaining batsmen with ease with figures of 2-30. Southam all out for 120.

Matt Cartridge and Anshul Satsangi opened the batting for Willoughby , unfortunately Matt chopped on in the first over which is never nice let alone in the first game of the season. Anshul was joined by Ashley Rayner in the middle for the first time, both was seeing the ball well and punishing the bad balls to the boundary. Ashley the more attacking of the 2 retired on 30. Anshul carried on ticking the score board over with some nicely played shots before being caught on 48 on debut. A few quick boundaries from Chait Kurusala added to the total before also being caught.

Martyn Norman made his return to Willoughby also which is great to see and put on a nice score of 20 hitting a 6 to win the match supported by Nikesh Mistry.

A nice win to start the season off with, we wasn’t perfect in the field and we all didn’t bowl our best but a win is a win. Lets all stay focused, fit and healthy and move forward to the next game which we welcome Braunston CC to the green 17/04/21.