We started the day 50 behind Sumner with a 5 wickets and 12 overs in hand to try and chase first innings points. With the four schoolboy cricketers from last week all unavailable due to school cricket commitments we had a number of changes. Myself and Matty Aspinall came back in and Tom Flavell came down from the Premier side, while Mustard came in as a sub fielder due to the limit on number changes allowed between weeks.
It was another dewy morning as we got underway which made the pitch skiddy and the outfield slow. This hampered our chase as did regular wickets as we fell 4 runs short on 176 with one wicket in hand. The highlight of the morning was Jacob getting his long levers behind one downbreeze and cleared the spread field on his way to a Sabres PB of 15*.
Going into the second innings we knew we needed to bowl well to ensure we didn’t have a large target to chase and we were got off to a great start with Matty and Jacob opening the bowling. After a couple of aggressive shots from their opener, the lads settled into their rhythm and started picking up regular wickets. By the time we gave our leggies (Joe and Sam) a bowl just before lunch we had reduced then to 40 odd for the loss of 4 wickets.. A couple more quick strikes by Joe sends Sumner to lunch at 46-6. After lunch the trend continued with Sam and Joe continuing to pock up wickets to leave Sumner all out for 69. Joe finished with his second 4-for in as many weeks and the other three bowlers used all picked up two each. A great effort all round backed up by good catching to give us a prime chance to start the season off with a win.
Chasing 74 to win, Laurie and I opened and found it tough going to start. After a while the runs started to flow before Laurie fell to a straight, low one and the finger of death from umpire Jack Kane. I got a few streaky shots away with a couple of dropped catches from Sumner helping along the way. I was dismissed for 47 with 6 more needed which Tommy Flav and Triggy ticked off to give us an 8 wicket victory.
A great start to the season with contributions from a large number if different players. Our player od the day was Joe for leading the attack and dick of the day went to Laurie for a number of indiscretions. Following the game we convened at the clubrooms to enjoy an evening watching the black caps out on Hagley Oval.
