AVCC v Erlestoke
Having dominated the Erlestoke side for at least two seasons - 3 victories in all - AVCC's run came to an end on Sunday, falling 15 runs short, chasing 201 in a 35 over contest.
Erlestoke set off at a bit of a gallop, scoring 50 off the first 8 overs, with Mark Pugh Cook pulling off a great running catch at long off to remove their dangerous looking senior pro. This was engineered by a wily spell of off spin from Mike Parr 7-40-1, (got carted for 17 off his last however). Youth prospect Bond 2-10-0, managed to pull a buttock muscle (ooh-er) in his second over. Alex Brown picked up a couple of wickets 4-26-2, over-coming some mid-spell yips. Fred Kenny re-emerged from an extended injury break to bowl nicely 4-24-0 and show the rest of us how to field. Tim Law (7-48-3) topped and tailed the innings and bowled much better than his run-rate suggests. Keeping a good quality batting side to 5.75 per over was not too bad.
The batting started reasonably well Mark Pugh Cook anchored the innings for 19. Paddy Bond had a few swipes for 20. Rob Hedderwick played himself in and out of form for 30 and Simon Borthwick (welcome back also) played a good innings of 36. However, we couldn't keep up the run rate in the middle overs and left ourselves 90 off the last 10, which despite a few valiant swats, notably from Tim Law 23 n.o., proved too much.
It turned out that it was only a game in the pub afterwards and there was encouraging signs that our batting is coming together.
All set for the Club Day next Sunday which we are bound to record a win!
Simon Campbell