Tough day at the Office

Another tough fixture on paper against high flying Kimberley, and so it was to prove.

Normington lost the Bank Holiday toss, and Kimberley elected to bat. Steiner and Brown did and excellent containg job in the first 4 overs as the Kimberley openers found their feet and decided to tee off. The change bowlers were unable to prevent some rather spectacular wagon wheels.

The break through came from a Shepherd over, full of variety -and deliveries, buttering the opener up with a succession of wides, before forcing a leading edge down the throat of safehands Cairns. The opener embarassingly turned into the Incredible Sulk, gloves thrown to the floor and kicked all the way to the boundary.

Boys I don't ever want to see that from you and I am sure that I wouldn't!

The onslaught continued with the 100 up and still 4 overs to go, thankfully the other opener had retired - 35*, but the pint sized number 3 was in the mood.

To great credit Steiner and Healey only conceded 15 off the last 4 overs, the former with tremendous figures of 4-0-9-0, as Kimberley finished on, nearly a run a ball, 116-1 - with the number 3 ending on 36* and plenty more stars in the hutch.

Tudor and Cairns opened up at 4 an over before Cairns played across a straight one and Legge's finger triggered. 11-1 off 3. The following over saw the squeeze tightened with a double wicket maiden, as Hennessy was first bowled then Tudor presented an easy catch to mid on. Healey steadied the ship but the Kimberley bowlers were unrelenting as Stolworthy (5), Steiner (2) and Shepherd (7) all came and went. 46-6 off 16

Normington (7*) and Healey (23*) kept the scoreboard ticking and gained some valuable time in the middle, as the innings finished on 64-6.

On the face of it a 52 run defeat. Positives: 20 more runs than in the same match last year and 4 less wickets given away