Old Pauline 1's beat RCC 1's by 5 wickets

RCC travelled to Old Pauline with a much changed lineup including a number of new faces getting their first taste of 1st XI cricket. The team also included a captain who hadn't been in charge of a cricket team since under 15s cricket as Fuchsy had bowed to pressure on the home front and had swanned off to Italy for the long weekend.

We lost the toss and were inserted on what looked like a decent track (very useful as I had no idea what I would have done should I have won). A new opening partnership of Phil Dorsett and Nick Hoadley got us off to a steady start against some accurate and, from one end, rather sharp bowling, putting on 48 for the first wicket. Dorsett again showed his class as he and James Liddell put on a further 59 for the second wicket, he was particularly merciless to their spinner and his 60 contained 11 fours. The top order continued to do their job as Liddell and Pukar Patel stood up well to the oppositions overseas pro and the total steadily rose. After Liddell was dismissed for a very handy 38, Patel, with some assistance from Hunting and Stevens in the middle order, pushed us towards a total of 177 from our 52 overs. Not a bad effort considering the accuracy of their bowling and something we considered defendable given the strength of our bowling attack.

The Old Pauline innings started at a furious pace as their skipper punished anything loose or full right from the off as he compiled an impressive 51 from just 38 balls. He was eventually dismissed after skying a ball from Tom Easton to short mid wicket which was promptly dropped by the stand in skipper, however blushes (and Tommy's wrath) we're saved as, in the confusion, the batsman was stranded in the middle of the pitch - the ball was returned to the stumps and Joe Purnell calmly whipped off the bails. What followed was a passage of play in which most of their top order never really looked comfortable but runs continued to come. Easton, Kruger and Liddell all at times bowled well picking up a wicket each with DW getting two but we certainly missed Fuchsy's calming influence with the ball. Some errors in the field and a lot of streaky runs contributed to our downfall as they reached the target in 35 overs.

My thanks to Phil for captaincy advice on the day and to Hemish for his efforts and understanding in selection.

Man of the Match: Phil Dorsett
(report by Will Hunting)