First match of the season and hot, sunny weather greeted us at Quy where Cherries make their home. The shock news that Skip had something akin to bubonic plague and would be absent was offset by Jacko returning to the team (although he never actually left it). Cherries have become our bogey team but surely we'd beat them soon, maybe today?
Whichever Wilson skippers the team they're almost certain to lose the toss. This was a tricky decision though, as whilst you wouldn't normally want to field during the hotter part of the afternoon, the pitch looked like it would be low and slow. We were invited to bat and the Rob/McCann pairing marched out to find a wicket where you couldn't trust the bounce enough to ever feel 'in'. Despite this, Rob played some cracking shots including a lovely straight six. Michael was bowled by a good one and then AB found timing hard to come by. The run rate was okay but then we lost Rob, AB and H in a short period. Butler and Fez steddied things and picked up the rate. Pre-innings targets were being revised downward and 160 was looking like a par score if we could get there. Tom was out for a patient 24 and Fez an equally restrained 30. Longy and Dobbo played some nice shots and ran well in the closing overs to allow us to reach tea with 162-7 to our names.

Final match of last season had seen us at the same venue and their opener had made a chanceless 50. We needed to take our chances, and hope to get him early this time. Longy and Jacko bowled superbly and Cherries staggered to 23-4 after ten overs. The fly in the ointment was that the opener had given a chance, an easy one, and we put it down. From that point on there was a mixture of partnerships and then a wicket so that both teams always felt in with a chance. Thirty overs gone and the score was 110-5. Gamblers would have gone for the batting team at that point but we showed great resillience to keep fighting and two more wickets fell with 30 still required. The game was on a knife-edge and we were aided by the support from some of our victorious 2nd team following their earlier finish. 151-7 after 38 overs but the opener still there and steering Cherries home. The winning hit came with 5 balls of the innings remaining and the main man on 79 not out. Longy (10-2-20-4), Jacko (10-1-32-2), Joe on debut (6-1-24-0) & Fez (7-0-22-1) arguably deserved more for their efforts but there has to be a losing team.

It's hard to take losing tight games and trying to look for positives has a hollow ring. Best summed up by AB "cracking game, we lost, let's go for a beer".