Southwell 1st XI v Bottesford 1st XI

Reeling from a disappointing losing draw against Gotham the previous week and having lost an increasing number of players to injuries, a changed Southwell team faced 10 man Bottesford who were also feeling the pinch of the holiday season. A wet morning and very variable weather reports lead to the agreement of a reduced 36 overs game. This complimented the nature of the Southwell batting line up and, as seems to be a common occurrence, Joe Fryer won the toss and decided to bat first on what looked a very flat track. With the absence of hand ball team captains Rainbow and Sprawson, Southwell made do with the leadership of Bowie and Burton in the usual competitive warm up,

A last minute change in the batting order saw Dave Rimmer open the batting with Tim Green and got Southwell off to the explosive start needed as 62 was reached from 10 overs before the loss of the first wicket. The Bottesford bowlers not quite catching on that Rim quite likes off-side half volleys and Green cashing in on wayward legside balls. Greg Behl and Chris Miller consolidated well after the two openers fell in quick succession (Green 32 and Rimmer 26) and guided Southwell into a strong position for the aggressive middle order to work its magic. Miller fell for 18 and Behl 15 to bring Foster and Burton to the crease in an attempt to take advantage of the 'loopy' bowling. Some excellent big hitting by Burton (23 from 11 balls) and strokeplay by Foster (43* from 41 balls) propelled the Southwell innings above 6 an over. As Burton fell to a pretty risky 2nd run, Bowie continued the quick scoring and reached 19 from 14 balls.

Due to the reduced overs and Southwell's need for a full 20 points, the decision was made to declare on 204/5 from 33 overs giving them an extra 3 (39) to bowl Bottesford out. Another excellent tea was had and Southwell felt confident in picking up the win.

The absence of Rainbow, Collins, McCarthy and Sprawson led to the new opening partnership of Mark Bowie and Steve Wright to give Southwell a good start. Wright struck with his third ball, pinning Barret LBW, exactly what was needed. Silverwood and Morley then set about demonstrating how good a batting wicket it was and built a solid partnership, despite Bowie missing the outside edge over again. Sharath Rajan was brought on to control and kept it tight as Rimmer replaced Wrighty. The change around worked as Silverwood charged down the wicket for the third time, only to miss the turning ball and be stumped by Fryer, an important wicket. The next ball sent Ward straight back too as he was bowled by Rimmer to leave Bottesford 73/3 from 14.

Wickets were always going to be key as Bottesford managed to keep up with the run rate and so as Wright picked up the wickets of Seymore and Morley (for 44), Southwell looked on top. Some good lower order partnerships developed, however, and kept Bottesford well in the game, especially as Foster failed in his bid to make the Tokyo 2020 GB Gymnastics team and broke his collar bone whilst attempting a simple forward roll. With 10 men it was difficult to contain but Rich Andrew bowled excellently and picked up 3 important wickets in his 3 overs. The final wicket took a good catch in the deep by Bowie after 33.4 overs, Southwell not quite requiring the extra overs they had gained from declaring early.

An important win and one that keeps the promotion hopes in the picture, all we can do now is keep winning and hope that either Wollaton or Kirkby Portland manage to mess up in their final 2 and 1 games respectively. A very good all round performance where everyone in the team had a role to play and carried it out strongly. Good job!