Willoughby Vs Old

With the first visit to The Green for the 2nd's first home game of the season ended in a very disappointing loss to Old 3rd's. Old 3rd's struggled last season in Division 11 but were far superior in their batting at the top of the order. This would be a stern test but with the quality the 2nd's did posses it was a team we should be beating to secure promotion.

The skipper lost the 2nd toss in a row and were asked to bat, the early season wicket played excellent and with fantastic foundations set at 87 for 1 off 20 overs the game changed with the introduction of the Old skipper Watson who bowled 10 overs straight through in the latter stages of the game. Scott Reynolds with an excellent 44 was dismissed by a ball which sharply cut back off the seam, apart from that innings there were notable contributions for Ian Andrews 17, Luke Francis 16 and Matt Sutton 18. Overs 20 - 40 were tough as with the 2nd spell of the opener Batchler 4 - 32 and Watson 3 - 26 they pegged the team back to a mediocre 144 for 9 off 40 overs.

Things didn't get much better as Watson also opened up the batting and struck the ball with great venom from the off causing problems for all the bowlers. An innings which on another day could have ended in the 1st over and after 3 drop catches lead his team to victory with an unbeaten 67 off 61 balls. An Excellent contribution from youngster Small with and unbeaten 57 was clearly playing at a lower standard than his is capable. A few LBW's which could (and should) have gone our way things could have been different with perhaps weaker batters to come. The sole wicket to Fergus Deery with 1 - 24. A deserved victory for Old but I would envisage that both team will look a lot different in the return fixture. 145 - 1 off 23.1 overs.