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The new season made a stuttering start on Saturday with the 1st XI’s game at Walton Park being cancelled as early as Thursday due to ground conditions.
After sterling work by groundsman Scott Robinson and his team, play took part at Shires Lane. The conditions mentioned in my last post had taken an upward turn for the better.
We entertained Boroughbridge and Staveley with the game sponsored by The Duke of Devonshire and Sam Arkwright. Unfortunately, we lost the toss and were asked to bat first. On a low, slow wicket we found runs hard to come by. Our first wicket fell at 36 in the 15th over with Caspar Bean going for 14. Thomas Mountain made 1, Maaz Nayyar 9 as the score progressed to 120 where opener Gareth Wooler perished for a patient 69 which included 8 fours and 2 sixes and took 121 balls. Four more wickets fell as we closed on 142 for 8 at the end of our overs. The first 30 overs of the innings saw us score 75, the next 10 overs reaped 67, an indication that the wicket was getting easier to bat on.
Their innings saw some excellent running between the wickets by the batsmen, making ones into twos and making inroads into our total quite quickly. We managed to snaffle four wickets which gave us two bonus points, before they reached their target in the 32nd over. Sam Keane took 2 for 31, P Wormald 1 for 27 and Caspar Bean 1 for 49. This week the 1st XI are at home to Harrogate 3rds with the game sponsored by The Cavendish Arms and Paul Barwick. The 2nd XI are way to Pateley Bridge 2nds.
Trevor Coe – ECC Chairman
