Ripsley Park was looking beautiful for our early Sunday morning fixture, the dry weather with excellent ground work (thanks ground staff!) allowing for the best first week pitch we've seen for years. Our captain, Stanley W, sensibly decided to bowl after winning the toss, hoping to get some early wickets and put pressure on our visitors, Purbrook.

And the boys did not disappoint. After Freddie D and Peter R applied tight lines to worry the opening bats, Walter came in with pace to rattle the stumps in the third, followed by Callum Q in the 4th, Elliot N in the 5th, Doug H in the 6th.. and they kept tumbling. Special bowling mentions to Doug H taking 4/29, Callum Q taking 2/2 with a maiden and an economy of 0.5 with some vicious swing in both directions, and captain Stan for some outrageous movement of the ball from his leg spin!

The batting was equally impressive and the boys kept their heads and their wickets while chasing a low target. Captain Stan W and Doug H saw off their troubling opening bowlers without losing a wicket in the first 4. Elliot and Louis contributed a 42 run partnership to accelerate the scoring. Freddie D and Walter came on to push in another 51 runs in their 4 overs, and captain Stan came back with Peter R to finish with another 43 in the final four. Boundaries a plenty for all, but hats off to Freddie D for top-scoring in his four overs, and captain Stan for top-scoring over all and jumping in to bat for the injured Callum. Losing so few wickets (2) is testimony to how well the boys are thinking about their shot selection.

An impressive first match performance where the team were responsible for their own batting order, bowling order and field placements through the match. A growing team with great things to come.

Well done boys!! Let's train hard again this week to really take hold of the season early.