Willoughby VS Brigstock CC

Willoughby's First X1 made the long journey to Brigstock looking to continue their good form. Skipper Ben Hollis lost the toss as was asked to bowl first.

Mark Fell 52-2 and Callum Hanks 41-1 opened up the attack and had the ball swinging at various angles repeatedly finding the edge of the bat but nothing falling to hand. Brigstock made a rapid start scoring 62 runs off the first 7 overs which 50 of them runs were edges or slashes over the slips. Hanks finally got the well deserved break through with a fine caught and bowled. Stuart Bonthuys 41-2 and Dan Farrow 35-2 were brought into the attack and both attacked the stumps with some decent pace. Farrow got his name in the book with Brigstock's skipper spooning one up and was caught in the covers. Singh and Spencer dug in for Brigstock and put together a partnership which has to be the luckiest one we have witnessed against us. Archie McMillian 12-1 and Alex Hislop 23-1 both bowled a short spell picking up a wicket each removing both set batsmen. Bonthuys picked up 2 wickets with Ambrose bucket hands Deery, Deery bagged 4 catches a fine run out. Brigstock made 212 all out loosing their last wicket on the final ball.

Missing our most in form batsmen Hassan Nawaz this weekend young Ambrose Deery stepped up and opened the batting with Callum Hanks. Things didn't get off the best of starts with Hanks edging one behind first ball. Rayner, Deery Norman Kurusala all came and went for very little and we collapsed to 24-5 off 14 overs. Farrow and Bonthuys steadied the ship and put together a nice well need 55 run partnership. Farrow (14) was caught in his crease LBW which brought Hollis into the middle. Bonthuys and Hollis looked to be positive and continued scoring runs dispatching the bad balls. Bonthuys made 49 before being given LBW which can only be described as a shocking decision. Hollis played some powerful shots over the ropes and made 38 before being caught in the deep. McMillian added 16 before missing a straight one. Fell and Hislop were the last roll of the dice however Fell edged behind and was caught. Willoughby slumped to 153 all out.

The loss of 5 early wickets hurt us massively and was going to be really tough coming back from that. We did extremely well recovering from 25-5 to 153 all out but sadly wasn't enough and was beaten by the better team on the day. With Mears Ashby getting hammered and picking up 0 points promotion is still on and we slide into second place. One game remaining and we welcome Northampton Saints to The Green next weekend who are top of the league, we win here and we are guaranteed promotion.