A decent effort from a side slightly short of big names or established performers. We were asked to bat first, and unsurprisingly Sam MacDonald provided the backbone of our innings. The slowish pitch and variable bowling proved ideally suited to his scything, muscular style. His 63 was more than half the runs we scored off the bat.

Tristan also made 31 in a vital partnership with Sam, but when he was caught in the deep, and Sam retired unwell, our innings rather petered out, with the exception of Chris Harrison’s sprightly 15. Chris can clearly hold a bat and is a good middle-order prospect for us.

158 was respectable but probably too few unless we could keep taking wickets. Tristan, and an excellent Haroon Khalid, made early inroads to reduce Gent’s Relish to 25-3, but then their two best batsmen came in, and dropped anchor, and our bowling slackened in intensity.

This was also our first experiment in hiring a village ground for a home match. The venue was the Great Haseley Cricket Club in Oxfordshire, which was very homely and good value, and worth the drive up the M40.

Please add your comments on the match below, after the scorecard.

St Anne’s Allstars CC v Gentleman’s Relish

Saturday 15th May 2010
Great Haseley CC, Oxfordshire
Weather: Cool, mainly overcast
Format: 35 overs a side, 10 players a side, max 8 overs a bowler, lowest scoring batsman may bat again

Allstars

J Ryan b Grant 3
H Khalid b Taylor 0
S MacDonald c b Murray 63
†CR Gould b Taylor 0
TAR Haddow-Allen c b Hughes 31
C Harrison b Murray 15
FOJ Haddow-Allen b Noakes 8
RJ Stephenson c wkt b Noakes 0
V Seth c b Murray 0
*MJC Haddow-Allen b Territt 1
H Khalid not out 4

Extras (14w, 8nb, 11b) 33

Total (28 overs) 158

Grant 6 1 15 1
Taylor 5 0 18 2
Lightly 3 0 29 0
Hughes 5 0 27 1
Noakes 5 0 27 2
Murray 3 0 16 3
Territt 1 0 1 1

Gentleman’s Relish

Bartlett b Khalid 4
Hadnen b T H-Allen 2
Taylor not out 59
Evans b T H-Allen 4
Hughes not out 61

Extras (16w, 2nb, 10b, 4lb) 32

Total (27.1 overs) 162-3

Fall: 1-10, 2-18, 3-25
DNB: Territt, Lightly, Murray, Noakes, Grant

Khalid 6 0 18 1
T Haddow-Allen 8 0 25 2
Seth 4 0 27 0
Ryan 5.1 0 33 0
Harrison 4 0 40 0

Result: Gentleman’s Relish win by 7 wickets