Finally a rare dry Saturday.  

After a warm up,
George won the toss and elected to field.
Niti and Toby opening up. They produced plenty of bounce and carry on a good looking wicket. Niti the first to strike with a well delivered bouncer which gave George another victim behind the stumps.

Toby continued to trouble the batsmen with good line and length deliveries. Despite pulling a muscle he continued to ask questions of the batsmen. A brilliant catch by Eshaan off Toby kept the pressure on. Niti should have had two more wickets in his first spell but dropped catches – including a dolly to the normally safe hands of Gibson senior meant he had to wait a bit longer. However, with Toby in good order at the other end two more wickets fell quickly -both taken sharply by George standing up to his fast medium pace. Toby Wells finishing with 3/37.

A good solid start however with one batsman set we needed to keep the pressure up. Ollie Walsh came on and soon took an excellent caught and bowled along with a wicket each for Eshaan and Simon Marriott. With Niti 4/32 moping up the tail end – including an excellent catch from Ollie Walsh and a fourth for the captain behind the stumps, Pickering were all out for 188.

After tea we took to the crease. Simon and Dale opened and got off to a decent start. Both openers defending well and hitting the boundary too, however, uncharacteristically Gibson ran himself out having been hit on the pads with the ball going close to gully.

Niti promoted to three came in and again got himself in, prior to a mix up with Simon who was run out. Niti soon followed him back to the hut tapping one back to the young spinner.  Enter Chris Stephenson for his first game of the season- and what a game it would turn out to be. The captain – yet to hit the heights of last year with the bat got himself in (as the top order had all done) and then he too got himself out.

With runs needed Chris and Eshaan put the bowlers to task – needing 5/6 an over the finish was always going to be exciting. Boundaries were hit including a couple of beautiful maximums, with the team on the sidelines buzzing victory was always in sight, despite losing Eshaan for an excellent 31.

Needing one to win off the final over, Chris decided to wait for the fifth ball to hit the winning runs to the boundary. 79 not out – a sublime effort.

30 big points in the bag, with the second team gaining the points after Heworth conceded it proved a better Saturday than in recent weeks. Thanks to Sam for stepping in to Matts shoes at the last minute to umpire, Matt  having to rush away as his wife had taken a fall from her horse, Julie for scoring and Adam and Andy for preparing a fabulous wicket.

Well done everyone.