3's lose to Champions elect

The Village were up against top of the league, Old Elizabethans 3's away.

On a hot day the toss was lost by the skipper and the Village were asked to bowl on a pitch that looked like a bowlers graveyard.

Andrew Godfrey (0-29) and Dan Penny (0-48) started the bowling for the Village and the pitch was not doing too much to help the bowlers as the batsman looked to score runs on a flat track. Dave Flavell (1-40) and James Thompson (0-25) were the next to have a go at the batsman but the number 1 & 2 for Old Elizabethans looked in no danger and were managing to tick the scoreboard over. They brought up a 100 run partnership and a big total was looking likely. Dave Knight (1-21) and George Downes (2-38) were next change and this brought about the first wicket as the number one batsman was stumped by Farzan Dulker Nain one short of his half century off the bowling of George and Nelson's curse had struck, 111-1. Next to go was the number 2 batsman who had surpassed 50 and he was out pulling one to Lawrence Bird on the boundary off the bowling of Dave Knight. George then got his 2nd wicket as he bowled the number 4 and the score was 131-3. The number 3 & 5 batsman then followed where the openers had left off and produced a partnership of 68 until the number 3 bat was run out by some good work by Andrew Teague. Dave Flavell and Dan finished the overs off and Dave picked up his only wicket bowling Godder's brother for 0, but Old Elizabethans finished up on 203-5 off their 45 overs.

James Thompson (10) and Piers Jenkins (45) got the Village reply started and James hit a couple of boundaries before he was caught off the lively bowling of the number 2 bowler for OE's. Lawrence Bird (7) joined Piers at the crease and he was also undone by the same bowler and was subsequently caught and bowled. Andrew Teague (12) was next in and managed to hit 2 nice boundaries off his legs but wickets were falling regularly and he was caught behind. Farzan Dulker Nain (4) was in and then out and the Village were 72-4. James Samarasinghe (3) was next in and tried to stay with Piers who at the other end was steadily scoring runs. James was then out caught and Dan Penny (16) joined Piers. The pitch was proving tricky to score off and Piers was looking to be positive to try and get the Village back in the game, unfortunately he ran passed one and was stumped after a decent knock. Dave Flavell (19) joined Dan and they enjoyed a bit of a partnership as they looked to increase the run rate but Legs was out caught bringing George Downes (8) to the crease. George and Dan were starting to run hard which probably brought about the end of George who was easily run out. Dan was next to go caught leaving Dave Knight (0*) and Andrew Godfrey (0) left for the Village. Godders equalled his brother's efforts with the bat and was bowled leaving the Village all out for 161.

Probably a toss to win and post a total on this flat wicket but OE's showed their quality with both bat and ball. Decent efforts from George Downes with his first wickets of the season and a decent, if not slow knock from Piers but the Village were never really in with a shout of winning this one.