Holtwhites hammered by rampant Village top order

Holtwhites Trinibis were invited to bat first and did so with much early circumspection to build a solid platform for their innings. 5 of the top 7 batsmen scored 30 or more but none of them got more than 52, so no one quite managed to take the innings away from the Village. The two batsmen that failed both got ducks. They were the 2nd and 3rd victims of an all bowled hatrick by David Overton (4-54). 3 consecutive straight yorkers were ideal deliveries to new batsmen whose feet were reluctant to get moving. Well bowled Skipper.

Having recovered from this and securing the solid base they had built themselves, the lower middle order started swinging freely and had a lot of luck on the way. Balls fell between fielders with regularity and mis-hits seemed to fly to the boundary frequently. Pace of the ball eventually paid off, thanks to Richard Downes, whose figures of 2-29 in 9 overs amid the mayhem were very creditable. Holtwhites batted their full allocation of 53 overs and ended up 9 down with 241 on the board.

Chasing a score of this magnitude is never straightforward. Thankfully no one told the openers this though. A fine opening stand of 108 was exactly the start the Village needed. Naz Asif was first to fall with 62 to his name. Phil Smith then came in and carried on the momentum, scoring 37 at close to a run a ball. Meanwhile Dan Potter was bedding in for the long haul. He carried his bat throughout the innings ending up unbeaten on 83. Another fine knock by the most consistent of the Village batsmen. Marcus Cara came in to bludgeon the Holtwhites bowlers yet further. A big six onto the Clubhouse roof set him on his way to a rapid 38 not out. By the end 241 looked a meagre total, as it was overhauled with 5 overs to spare and in 11 less overs than it took to compile.

The Village now look in fine form with both bat and ball. Beware all opponents in the 2nd half of the season!