Saturday 16/10/2021 St Albans vs Sumner
The Sabres kicked off their 2021/22 season against Sumner on the polo grounds. Starting on the second day of a 2 dayer both teams forfeited their first innings to fight for outright points. After losing the toss, the Sabres were asked to bowl, starting off with Clem Gibbens and Jack Anderson both bowling economical spells but coming up wicketless after 10 overs after an inspired change by Will Southby, Matt Aspinal snagged the first wicket of the season, bowling alongside him was Ian Souness who managed to grab a couple early on, to put sumner on the back foot. Sam Kearns was introduced in to the attack, and the Sabres boys put the squeeze on while picking up regular wickets going in to lunch with Sumner 78/5. After lunch we had Jack and Matt back in the attack with Jack picking up 2 crucial wickets early bowling a rapid spell while Matt assisted from the other end, a direct hit runout from Matthias Paltridge and Clem and Ian picking up the last 3 wickets left the boys with 120 to win. (Ian S 4W, Jack A 2W, Clem G 1W, Matt A 1W, Sam K 1W, Matthias 1RO)
The Sabres started off pretty poorly on a small chase loosing 4 wickets before the tea break, however a strongly put together knock by Manpreet Sharma survived to the tea break through all sorts of controversies leaving us at 40-4 at tea, here Manpreet met up with his ally Luke Trigg for them to steady the ship until Manpreet got caught trying to go over mid off on 35. After the loss of another wicket we had Clem joing Luke at the crease, the two of them put on a stellar partnership with Clem hitting 4 maximums to ease the tension scoring a very brisk 38 off 19 balls, but with the loss of Clem and Jack with 4 to win the pressure was on Luke and new batsman Matt to tick off the runs with Luke taking leadership over the game and scoring 3 of the final 4 runs with minimal risk. Leaving the Sabres with a 2 wicket win, with Luke 27* and Matt 1* at the end. (Clem G 38, Manpreet 35, Luke 27*)
