A touch below par

A patchy performance resulted in a losing draw at home to Netherfield, as the 1sts came up 12 runs short. Ben won the toss and bowled after our performance on the same pitch the week before. After a tight start, Netherfield openers Brown and Williams gradually opened up, the latter finding the going tougher earlier on. after 12 overs of balls going through gaps, we took our foot off the gas and were guilty of letting the game drift in the field. Both openers continued to accumulate on the slow, used pitch. The introduction of Timmy to replace Moff didn't initially stem the run flow as the visitors reached 101 without loss at drinks.

Staring at 200+ score, we dragged it back after drinks through Timycen, some tighter fielding and young Matty Liver, showing good control on a difficult pitch for the seamers. Brown fianlly fell to Timmy as Scott attoned for his drop at square leg earlier for 44 and Williams to Matty after he reached his 50. The humid conditions meant thundery weather was never too far away, and so black clouds meant rain interruptions and a game reduced to 45 overs. The Netherfield innings did stall slightly as Timmy and Ben came back into the attack to finish things off, Pienaar making 36 not out and the visitors making a good score of 166 for 4 from their 45.

With the pitch slowing up and crumbling by the over a solid start was in order, Jamie and Meccers continued where they left off from Blackpool last week and made a solid start in pursuit of the total. Jamie tucking in to Brown while Meccers drove Nixon straight. Hadders and Pienaar, off a short run, took pace off the ball on the wearing surface and runs became harder to come by as Jamie slapped a ball straight back to Pienaar to go for 26.

Timmy joined Meccers as the run rate crept up to 5 an over at drinks. Meccers holed out to mid off. Timmy continued his imperious run of form picking the gaps, starting slowly through accumulation. However, regular wickets fell at the other end as numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7 could only muster 7 runs between them. With rumbling in the background JD made a cameo 11 as Lancaster crept towards another batting point. Timmy had other ideas as he unleashed a thunderous assault with 37 required off 2 overs with Simmo at the other end. Alas it was just too much and, despite giving Netherfield the jitters, we were always short. Timmy finsihing with another excellent unbeaten knock of 73. So positives to take but things in the field and with the bat to improve upon.