1st win of the season for the 3's

The 3rd XI were away at Southgate Adelaide 3's at the scene of last year's near 220+ run chase.

The skipper lost the toss and the opposing skipper asked the Village to bat.

James Thompson (0) and Matt Hawkes (0) opened the Village innings and after being watchful for a couple of overs as the ball was swinging, the skipper fell missing out on a full toss to be bowled. No sooner had the skipper got back to the hutch, Matt was joining him as he was caught brilliantly at 1st slip to leave the Village in all sorts of trouble. Farzan Dulker Nain (51) and Dan Penny (3) were next in and were patient, waiting for any bad balls to pounce upon. Dan then fell the same way as Matt as he edged to the slips to leave the Village 14-3. Richard Pfeiffer (11) joined Farzan at the crease and looked solid and the pair of them brought about rebuilding the innings. It was going well at 43-3 until Richard was bowled. Dave Knight (0) was next in but didn't last long as he was bowled and at halfway the Village were 55-5. George Leggett (5) joined Farzan who had single handedly got the majority of the Village runs. He was solid and was able to pick the right balls to hit away to keep the score ticking over. He reached his fifty before gloving one behind with the score at 82-6. Joe Sheridan (39) joined George at the crease and got into his stride straight away by rotating the strike and finding the boundary. George was looking good until he topped edged one straight to a fielder. Tommy Smith (4) joined Joe at the crease and after hitting a lovely 4 straight back over the bowlers head was then bowled, leaving the Village 101-8. Andrew Godfrey (11*) was next in and looked to stick around with Joe who was farming the strike to get the Village to a defendable total. It was looking like the Village might get to 160 before Joe was given out LBW much to his frustration before Chalky Cara (2) was next in and then out caught trying to get some more runs as the Village finished on 144 all out.

Andrew Godfrey (0-22) and George Leggett (3-15) started the bowling and kept it tight to not let Southgate get away. George managed to get the 1st wicket of the innings in his 4th over when the opener nicked off to Farzan to take a regulation catch. Godders was bowling well although not finding the right line to trouble the batsmen but crucially he was not going for too many runs. Tommy Smith (0-24) had replaced George and his 1st over was a maiden. The batsmen were watchful but the Village were always in the game as the pitch and outfield were not easy to score on due to the green tinge and longer grass. The Southgate number 1 & 3 were steadily accumulating the runs and a break through was needed as at the halfway stage the oppo were 59-1, which was only 4 runs ahead of the Village total at the same point. Dan Penny (2-21) had replaced Godders before Matt Hawkes (4-11) replaced Tommy. Matt was bowling nicely and got the break through when he trapped the number 1 batsman LBW. The score was 63-2 and with the number 3 batsman looking to play some shots the game was in the balance. Dan then got his 1st wicket thanks to a superb catch in the deep from Godders to get rid of the dangerous number 3. He had to make up 20 yards from deep mid wicket to hang onto the chance but at 78-3 the Village sensed the game was well and truly on. Hawkesy then set about destroying the middle order as his next 3 wickets, 2 in one over were all bowled, leaving the oppo in trouble at 87-6. Dan Penny had also picked up a wicket, his 2nd of the game with a simple caught and bowled effort. It was left to George Leggett to finish the innings off with the final 2 wickets as he bowled both the number 6 and last man to leave the oppo all out for 98.

A superb bowling and fielding display gave the 3's the victory with notable contributions from Farzan and Joe which had given the Village something to bowl at. Man of the match was tough to call with firstly Farzan keeping the innings together before Joe came in to score some valuable runs at the end of the innings. George Leggett also bowled well picking up 3 wickets but after getting a duck with the bat, Matt was superb with the ball recording career best figures of 4-11 off of his 8 overs which gave the Village the impetus to win the match.