Defeat ends 3's unbeaten run

The 3's were at home against St Margaretsbury 3's looking to continue their unbeaten run.

The toss was won by the skipper who asked St Margaretsbury to bat.

Lee Cara (2-38) and Chalky Cara (3-34) opened the bowling for the Village and both managed to keep the batsman quiet, although an injury brought an early end to the St Margaretsbury number 1. Both bowlers picked up a wicket apiece in their opening spells and after 15 overs the oppo were 39-2. James Thompson (0-29) replaced Chalky and George Leggett (2-32) replaced Lee and both kept the pressure on the oppo with James bowling a consistent line and length in his 10 overs. George managed to pick up a wicket due to a decent catch from Piers Jenkins but their number 5 batsman was proving tricky to get out and he held the innings together scoring 52. Dave Knight (1-19) came on for George and after 2 overs had picked up his wicket to leave the oppo 130-4 off of 30 overs. Chalky and Lee came back on for their 2nd spells and 3 more wickets fell one courtesy of the father/son combination with Chalky taking an excellent catch in the slips. George also had a 2nd spell and managed to get the wicket of the number 5 batsman. At the end of 47 overs St Margaretsbury had reached 172-8.

Piers Jenkins (16) and George Downes (20) started the run chase for a very gettable target. They both started slowly which wasn't helped with the oppo's number 2 bowler, bowling 9 overs for 9 runs. Piers was first out caught to leave the Village 38-1 off 15 overs which was on par with St Margaretsbury's first 15 overs. Farzan Dulker Nain (0) was next in and within 2 balls was out bowled which brought Andrew Teague (8) to the crease to join George. George was then out bowled and the Village had slumped to 42-3 off 18 overs. Lee Cara (16) came in and began to take the fight to the oppo, but then ran out Andrew going for a run that was probably not on. Graham Leggett (45) joined Lee and together started to increase the run rate with Graham managing to find the boundary. With these 2 at the crease the total seemed very reachable before Lee was caught at slip. James Thompson (8) was next up and looked good and was keen to get as close to the total to put the pressure back on the oppo but he was bowled off his pads (again). Chalky Cara (0) was then in and out to leave the Village 107-7. George Leggett (2) then joined his dad at the crease with Graham trying to farm the strike to get the Village close but unfortunately he was running out of partners as George was bowled. Priyan Perera (0*) was in and stayed with Graham for a bit before Graham was finally out bowled after an impressive knock. Dave Knight (0) was last man in and didn't last long as he was bowled leaving the Village 124 all out.

A decent bowling performance was undone with 41 extras and then the batting never really got going with wickets falling on a regular basis. Only Graham proved any real resistance and if anyone of the other batsman could have stayed with him the result may have been different.