HSMCC v Salfords

Holmbury St Mary 302-6, Salfords 143.

After 8 overs of Saturday's game at home to Salfords, we were 26 for 2, with both openers back in the hutch, #wintossbat was looking like a risky decision as Salfords opening bowlers delivered the ball with a pace and accuracy that exceeded anything we had faced so far this season. But Raoul Colvile (113) and Mat Evans (61) steadied the ship and even though Salfords first change bowlers were also decent, by the time their partnership of 141 was ended, Holmbury were back in control. This situation was improved further by Phil King (65) adding another 120 runs with Raoul and, by the end, we had scored 302-6 from our 40 overs. This total, against a very solid bowling attack was outstanding and Salfords will was broken before their batters even stepped across the whitewash after tea.

Early wickets proved hard to come by but accurate bowling from Paul Seligman (6 overs for 25) and Monu Sharma (8 overs 2-28) kept the visitors openers in check until the first wicket fell with 79 runs on the board but the best part of 20 overs gone. Thereafter, wickets fell at regular intervals, shared between Mat Evans (5.2 overs 2-22), Geoff Finch (8 overs 1-30), Phil King (4 overs 2-9), and Charles Colvile (2 0vers 2-10), as Salfords subsided to 143 all out. It is worth noting that Charles completed a unique Holmbury feat by taking a wicket with his first ball. While not itself notable, this followed last week's 4 wickets from successive balls to end that game and meant that he had taken wickets from 5 successive deliveries for Holmbury!

This week we are playing third-placed East Horsley who managed to lose last weekend, leaving them 75 points behind us, so a win would put us almost 100 points clear of third-place and would improve still further our odds of promotion.