Team: 4th XI
Date: 10th May
Vs: Hurst

At last the sun shone on the first league matches of the new season, league newcomers Hurst 2s entertained Finch 4’s. Hurst won the toss and asked Finch to bat first on a green tinged wicket that was dry but soft, it was never going to help the pace bowlers.

Finch started slowly against accurate bowling, David Davies hit the first boundaries with Matt Lay following with a flick off his legs over mid-wicket for 6. One’s and two’s followed with the occasional boundary and the first wicket partnership put on 68 before David Davies was bowled off an inside edge for 32. This brought Malcom Blogg to the crease and the new pair took the score to 103 when Malcom was bowled for 8. Matt Lay continued to play his shots and pulled a full toss for the second 6 of his innings. Ben Fisher (ex Hurst) was greeted with some "kind" words from his ex team mates but played well under the pressure. Matt Lay was next to go, bowled attempting to move the score along for 67. A brief partnership between Bobby O and Ben Fisher ended after Ben had played a couple of nice drives for 4, before trying one too many and lost his off stump. Disaster struck with Dan Barclay run out for 0 and Matt Huggan getting the only ball of the day to bounce and was caught behind off an edge for 0. The rest of the Finch innings was an all Osler affair with Bobby playing the sensible innings while Scotty played a run a ball innings of 23 NO, Bobby knew the score and attacked the last couple of overs to see Finch to a total of 203 and finishing on 33 NO.

The total was probably 25-30 runs short of a good target.

Finch opening bowlers D. Mason and Phil West made the Hurst batters work hard for their runs, with Phil overcoming first over nerves to bowl 6 overs for 29. The introduction of Bobby O to partner Dave made the Hurst batters struggle to get ahead of the run-rate. With nothing much happening Bobby decided to introduce some young bowlers with the spin of Matt Huggan and the medium pace of Dillon Augustus, what an inspired bowling change, in his first over Dillon had the opener caught by Phil West and in his second had the Hurst captain caught by Matt Huggan. The Hurst batsmen were kept below the run rate and another wicket fell when Dave "I didn’t know I could move that quick" Mason took a superb one-handed catch off the bowling of Matt Huggan. Unfortunately this bought the Hurst hitters to the wicket and only a great direct hit from Ben Fisher to run out Hurst’s number 5 prolonged the inevitable as it was the last wicket Finch took with the Hurst number 6 taking advantage of some tired bowlers and hitting 33 off 21 balls to seal a win for the Home side.

The youngsters’ bowling was good with Dillon’s figures 2 for 35 from 6 and Matt Huggan’s 1 for 38 from 9.