1st XI V Marehay (H)
Lullington 196/9 Marehay 119 all out - won by 77 runs.

The first team in a repeat of the first game from last season won there first league game by 77 runs, taking the maximum 27 points. The team without club captain Dave Mudd produced a fine team effort in beating last years 3rd place team.

Stand in captain Andy Goodwin lost the toss and Marehay elected to field and the decision was soon justified by the loss of both openers, Jonny Shales and Dave Hartley with the score on 20. The new ball was moving around early and both players got good balls when they looked fairly comfortable.

Dave Adams and Andy Goodwin (3 and 4) then shared a stand of about 50 and began to rebuild the innings after the early setbacks. Then after Goodwin dragged a short ball on to the stumps for 33 George Chapman continued scoring a very useful 27. Dave Adams fell for 37 and after a mini collapse Steve Gough came in timing the ball from the go scored a good 20 odd which helped push the score up to a very respectable 196 for 9 (with Danny Gough hitting the last ball of the innings for 6, had to put that in).

Marehay’s replay began steadily with Liam Rollason, making his first team league debut struggling into the very very strong wind, and finding the new one day wide rule quite harsh. Danny Gough bowled as economical as always bowling his 7 overs for 14. The introduction of Jonny Shales replacing Rollason brought the first wicket and with Gough chipping in with one and then Shales bagging his second soon after, the score was balanced at 30 for 3. Shales completed his 10 overs for 36 and after Rollason came back for a few overs it was over to the spinners.

George Chapman started it off by removing the South African and then gave very little away, while Andy Goodwin at the other end picked up the next. The last 5 wickets fell very quickly with a mixture of good balls and indifferent shots with Chapman ending up with 2-14 off 8 and Goodwin, 5-24 off 10. Marehay’s final score was 119, a victory by 77 runs and a very good start to the season.

Related Links:
1st Team Results / Report
League Tables 2003