The Ploughmans arrived at Broadfields to discover that the groundsman was on strike or something as the pitches had not been prepared and that the only one marked out was the pitch that the 2nds had played on the day before (which they had to mark themselves). As we couldn't open the shed without the key, we had no choice but to play on the same pitch. McNee and Hargreaves gave it a roll and so off we went...

Lonnen made his way to the middle with the opposing skipper and won the toss, much to Lane's bemusement (probably because he was late) he elected for us to field. Gillman and McNee opened the bowling on what was a very unpredictable pitch with balls popping up randomly, it wasn't long before a batsman was asking for a lid. Gubbays managed to make a steady start and reached 40 before Gillman struck and Lonnen took a nice catch. The next bat in was a solid looking fella, he took a few hits from Gillman, one on the head (no lid) but shook it off and started smacking the ball all around the field. He was looking dangerous so Lonnen brought himself on to bowl, cut his pace considerably and soon Feeney had him stumped. Lonnen took the number 4 and 5 bats with more fine bowling (reaching closer to his 300 wickets), but who we really wanted was their opener who had reached his 50 thanks to us dropping him about 4 times. He was finally undone to a fine piece of fielding from Nicholls with a direct hit from midwicket making it 164 - 5.

Barron took the next wicket but was knocked about a bit by the number 7 bat before Wilkinson from fine leg ran him out with another fantastic throw making a direct hit. Then Yorkshire showed us again how its done and took a great catch at fine leg over his head off the returning McNee's bowling. All out for 219.

After tea Davies and Feeney opened the batting and made a good start making over 40 runs after 10 overs, Feeney went on to make his first 50 for the club, 50 in 63 balls / 74 mins - well done mate and thanks for the jug after the game! Feeney was finally caught on 63 just as we thought he might go on to make a 100. Hargreaves was unlucky and got run out and so Lane then came to the crease at 4. Davies was out for a well made 41 caught at slip, then Nicholls was caught at gully and at this point we were 120 - 5 and starting to wobble a bit, but Lane had other ideas and kept on battling away, even taking one smack on the side of his head.  Lonnen hit a lovely straight 6 and made a quick 12 before being caught. At this stage we needed 6 an over to win when McNee came to the crease and opened up with Lane to put on a 56 run partnership in as many balls or less, to take us within touching distance when McNee was run out to make it 201-7. But Lane with Gillman finished it off with 2 overs to go and Paul a little unlucky to finish on 48 not out. A PCC win - brilliant!

It was a great effort from all the team and a great win played in a good spirit against a decent bunch of lads with everyone contributing...

BN