On a sunny afternoon with a chance of rain, the Saturday XI took on Brasted & Sundridge at the Old County Ground. Brasted & Sundridge won the toss and elected to bat first. However, they struggled to get the ball off the square after some tight bowling initially from Al Ramsay and Steve Marsh, restricting them to only 17 runs in the first 10 overs.
Steve Marsh then removed one of the openers and the slow run rate continued through to drinks with the score still only 33 for 1. Malcolm Tunnicliff was bowling his usual variations, bambozzling our opponents with some fantastic deliveries. His figures of 3 for 12 were fully deserved, and Tom Lenham also contributed with a great line and length to finish with 2 for 10.
After some late hitting to get the score above 100, John Paton had had enough, and decided to bring himself on to bowl. His two overs for only one run and a wicket meant that Brasted & Sundridge had to settle for 120 for 8 off their 40 overs.
This score was chased down in less than 20 overs. Richard Sims and Steve Marsh got off to a lightning start, scoring boundaries on a regular basis. Richard was particularly strong off his pads, whereas Steve was showing the full face of the bat with some excellent drives. Richard brought up his 50 off 47 balls shortly after a towering 6 down to fine leg. He was bowled off an inside edge the next ball, but at this stage only 20 runs were required. Those runs were quickly knocked off by Steve with three fours in succession.
Overall, it was an excellent performance and a great first win of the season for the Saturday side.