FCL Match 3 v Anchorsholme

A sunny day greeted us at the Stanley Park Model Village pitch to take on the highly experienced Anchorsholme. Another successful toss call by the Captain meant we took the decision to bat first and try to post a good total. With the Anchorsholme slow bowlers looking to take advantage of another less than 100% pitch, the decision may have started to look shaky when Alcock went for another score in the 20's and Gregson for a duck, not good! Thankfully Amos dug in and scored a battling 50 and the middle order once again fired some quickfire runs to get the team to 182/7 declared.

With over 2 hours to bowl at the opposition confidence was high. However seasoned campaigners know of the defensive qualities of the Anchorholme batsmen. Even so early wickets once again flowed with the variable bounce of the pitch helping to reduce them to 9/5. Allan Hardisty was welcomed to the crease with a guard of honour, how international! But soon returned to the sidelines! Then came the defensive qualities which we had been expecting. Bouncers, Yorkers, wide ones, low ones, all came and were suitably left or blocked. Frustrations were growing as the last hour was called with 5 wickets still needed. A change of tactics was required and cometh the day, cometh the Amos! A couple of wickets with some change in pace meant that Alcock and Gregson followed suit and started to bowl some spin. Occasional spinning beamers were produced and despatched for 4 but it did the trick and soon the last pair were in and had 15 minutes to survive and claim a battling draw. The clock was ticking and tension was growing. The Captain brought himself back on and was suitably frustrated when the batsman declined to be bowled out! But with 5 minutes remaining Gregson got one through Archer's defences and claimed the points.

Another good win to keep the good start to the season going, but a valuable lesson in the tactics required to maximise the team's chances of victory.