Unfortunately the 3rd were not able to make it 3 wins out of 3, falling to Saham Toney by 38 runs.
We welcomed back a couple of old, and classy, heads in Kevin Cooper and Saffy Herathge. Jack Watts, and his comedy sunglasses, also returned. Nick Aston made his debut for the club.
Having won the toss and chosen to field, the Saham innings consisted of 3 distinct phases. Up to drinks and 23 overs Saham had lost 3 wickets and were struggling to exceed 4 an over. The 10 overs after drinks were expensive for us as A Wood and M Hunter threatened to take the game away from us. The introduction of Nick Aston at the bottom end signalled the end of Hunter who was caught in the deep by our long on specialist, Jon Olpin. Â Nick bowled really well at the end of the innings, and, accompanied by Nathan and Sunny who kept it tight at the top end, we clawed back a little of the initiative. Wickets tumbled and Wood nearly ran out of partners before reaching a well deserved hundred in the last over.
Our innings started fluently again with both Jessy and Jon looking in good nick. It was a surprise when Jon was caught and bowled. Saffy came in at 3 and, when Jessy and Tom Snelling fell in quick succession, he and Coops began a repair job, batting with circumspection. Saffy looked like he was about to get on top of the bowling when he, too, was caught and bowled. Coops and Bails and then put on 60 and things looked comfortable with 13/14 overs to go as we only required five an over to get over the line.
This all changed when Bails chipped to cover and Coops was bowled in quick succession. Some lusty blows from Jack and Nick took us to 188 but we had lost our chance.
Top performers for us on the day were Nathan with 3 for 49 and Coops who scored 49.
