A fine win in the sunshine for the 1st XI

On a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon the 1st XI produced one of their best performances of the last few years to beat a good Langford side by 70 runs - a margin of victory which reflected a fine performance with many contributors.

Put in to bat on what turned out to be one of the best tracks played on at Redmarley for a few years, we were missing two of last week's top 3 but a new opening partnership of the Chairman and 16 year old Ronnie Newbery set us up with an opening stand, not without a couple of alarms, of 65 before the old man of the pair ran past one on 35. Ronnie made a fine 45, his best innings to date for the 1st XI, and through contributions of 24 from Charlie, 35 from Craig and a very bright 29* from Ed we reached a good, competitive 208/5.

Knowing we would have to bowl well on a good track with a fast outfield Harry Radley, after a quick change in to his bowling boots, found a superb length and bowled unchanged for his 2/21 off 8 - figures that were fully deserved and continued his fine start as a 1st XI opening bowler. Noting that taking pace off the ball was probably the way to go Sam Mattingley was introduced early and his 8 overs 0/27 helped put us in charge of the game by drinks with Langford 72/3 but still with several guys who could do damage with the bat - the game was far from over.

The decisive moments came in Craig's second spell soon after when he first effected a fine run out in his follow through to remove the set Parsons and then removed the visiting skipper, who had just dispatched his opposite number for a huge six, and Findlay-Wilson in consecutive balls in his next over. The following over brought the edge of the set Stevens for 21 and the score to 102/7. A brief rally from Sweet and Brown threatened to make things interesting but Craig grabbed his 4th thanks to a fine running catch in the deep from Charlie to end the visitors' counter-attack and it was left to the two old boys of the team to clean things up for a hard fought and well deserved win.

Langford are a fine side, who finished 3rd last season, and any win against them is one to be enjoyed but the manor of the team performance made it an especially enjoyable one. The 1st XI travel to Great Rissington next Saturday looking to build on an encouraging first two weeks.