1st XI
Thirsk 2nds were the visitors to Shires Lane. Despite the rain of Friday, the wicket looked a belter. Embsay won the toss and asked the visitors to go first and this they did in fine style. They amassed an 219-4 with Lewis Banthorpe hitting 102 which included 13 fours and 5 sixes and took 94 balls. Andrew Foulds took 2-39 and Haroon Ali and Tom Robinson took a wicket apiece.
For want of a better term our reply was even more stylish as we knocked off the runs with five overs to spare. Leading the way was Andrew with 86no (15×4 1×6) and Joe Holt 55 (6×4 4×6) who put on115 for the fourth wicket. Andrew was joined by Haroon who plundered 37 (6×4 1×6) in a match winning partnership of 70.
We remain top, still 25 points clear of Sessay.
2nd XI
We travelled to Killinghall 2nd and put in a performance below our usual standard and paid the price losing by 36 runs.
They won the toss and batted first and got off to a solid start of 83 for the 1st wicket. We got back into the game and reduced them to 114-6. Then dropped out again as they put on 78 for the loss of one more wicket to close on 192-7.
Sam Keane took 4-50, Paul Wormald 2-48 and Josh Robinson 1-38.
We lost run machine Gareth Wooler to the first ball of the innings. Josh followed the first ball of the third over and we slumped to 39-5 in the 13th over. The winning post looked a long way away even getting batting bonus points looked doubtful. Sam Keane and Bob Bateman stage a mini recovery which saw us reach 74 went Sam was out for 25 to a ball he could have hit to any part of the ground instead of back to the bowler! Bob was joined by Thomas Mountain – the oldest player on the field and the youngest! And they saw the score to 112 when Bob went for 46. George Keane joined Thomas and they took us to within reach of a fourth batting where the latter went for 14. Paul Wormald perished for 1 which left us with 11 balls to go. Last man Chris Stone stylishly crashed two fours to claim the bonus point. The pair then had to see out the last three balls to deny the homesters of a fifth bowling bonus point. This they did to leave us on 156-9 with George 13no.
We are still at the top of the table but our lead over Pannal 3rds is down to 10 points.
Fixtures
The first team are away to Newby Hall next Saturday and the second team are at home in a top of the table clash with Pannal 3rd, with the match ball sponsored by Craven Veterinary Services.
Trevor Coe – ECC Chairman
