Fletching 2nd XI defeated by Newick 2nd XI
We once again begin with tails of Ali Horscroft and his tossing exploits. With storm clouds brewing around Fletching it was imperative that skipper Ali altered his run of defeats. Would the hours spent tossing in silent solitude over the past weeks pay dividends? Would they buy-eck! Newick’s visiting skipper called correctly and it was no surprise when Fletching were invited to bat once again.
On a fairly benign wicket disaster struck early for Fletching when opening stalwarts Any FitzGerald and Trevor Brown departed with the score only on 22. When Ali Horscroft fell 14 runs later Fletching looked to be in serious trouble.
Matt Fisk and Andy Horscroft tried to take back the initiative, but a fiery delivery from R Symonds did for Matt Fisk and when Andy Horscroft was spectacularly caught behind off the same bowler for 31 all of Fletching’s recognised batsmen were back in the pavilion with only 90 runs on the board.
For the first time this season the tail had a bit of a wag, with Michael Cass 17 and Matt Lee 20 not out ensuring that the home side at least managed to attain 4 batting points finishing on 152 all out.
In reply Newick got off to a slow but steady start. Andy Shanks returned to the Fletching attack and bowled an impressive spell of 11 overs for just 14 runs and was unlucky not to make the breakthrough. That honour fell to skipper Ali Horscroft who once again found himself amongst the wickets finishing with 2 for 43.
Piers Morgan came to the crease with the score on 47 and obviously not being used to the limelight struggled to get to grips with the accurate bowling from his old adversary Ali Horscroft. His tenure in the spotlight lasted nearly an hour before a splendid delivery from Andy Grant enabled Andy FitzGerald to whip off the bails and leave Newick’s resident celebrity floundering.
With the score on 110 for 5 Fletching felt they were still in with a shout, but a couple of dropped catches proved costly as G Waylett and R Manning saw Newick comfortably cruise to a 5 wicket win.
Newick (30 points) beat Fletching (9 points) by 5 wickets