HSMCC v East Horsley

Report by Mike MacDonagh

East Horsley 233 for 8, Holmbury St Mary 236 for 6.

The strength of any team as a unit is tested only in adversity and Saturday's tense win at home to East Horsley, who finished third in the division last year, demonstrates that point. Losing the toss, we were asked to field and, with the visitors 89-4 after 18 overs, things were looking comfortable. A fifth wicket stand of almost 90 and some late hitting meant we ended up having to chase a sizeable total, although 3 wickets each for Dave Hadaway and Mat Evans and Ken Woods first Holmbury wicket for several years meant that, with a score of 233-8, we secured 4 bowling points. The catching was good, with Bradley Cooper taking three and Mat Evans two.

In reply, Dan Russell (40) and Nigel Menzies (41) survived some good early bowling to put on 82 for the first wicket in just 14 overs. A strong opening partnership is vital if we are going to make good scores consistently and, once again, Dan and Nigel didn't disappoint. At this stage a flurry of wickets saw us slip to 89-3 and then to 119-5, after 22 overs. At this stage it would have been easy to panic but cool heads, aided by a good early scoring rate meant that Mat Evans and Bradley Cooper put on 60 for the 6th wicket, at which point Mat was joined by Charles Colvile (13no) and together they saw us home by 4 wickets with about 4 overs to spare, Mat finishing on an excellent 94no.

Although there was an excellent man of the match performance from Mat, with 94 runs, 3 wickets and two catches, this was a real team performance and 29 points propels us to the top of the table, 2 points clear of Nutfield and 3 clear of Salfords.

Next week we are away to Old Suttonians, who sit at the bottom of the table, having lost two and conceded one but we have yet to beat them and can't afford to take any game less than 100% seriously.