Cavaliers lose to Roehampton Bats by 8 wickets

After yesterday’s bruising encounter with the spin doctor and the unlikely opposition diamond duck in the 1st XI fixture, RCC Cavaliers approached the game aiming to complete a weekend of three victories.

Clearly, the tennis gods thought that Wimbledon had arrived a day early, and so RCC ended up batting first in conditions more akin to February than June, with the match being reduced to 30 overs per side. In between the frequent rain delays, RCC started steadily losing Scott Costelloe (3) early, but Clive Henderson (17) stayed around long enough to see off the opening bowlers. From there however, wickets tumbled at regular intervals, with useful knocks from Joe Purnell (17) and Ross Cameron (18), proving to be the other best scores made. RCC stumbled to a modest, but respectable, 113/8 after 30 overs, aided in the end by a useful ninth wicket partnership between James Appleby (11 not out) and Chris Burgess (2 not out).

In reply, the RCC bowling attack started brightly, with Cameron, Pukar and Abbasi helping to restrict the visitors to 50/2 after 17 overs in their reply, with remarkably improved overhead conditions. Despite good bowling though, all efforts proved wicket-less. A tidy spell from James Appleby claimed both scalps - the first a plumb LBW decision and the other courtesy of a smartly taken catch by Clive at mid-off. Sadly, Joe had been called away to work and his replacement caught and then dropped a chance in the covers – a real dolly off Cameron’s bowling which was to unfortunately prove crucial.

Debate rages as to whether you can fine a sub fielder - this was probably a fiver’s worth!?

From there, the skipper and his counterpart Nixon upped the rate and smashed a number of impressive fours and sixes, and after a difficult caught behind chance went begging, the winning runs came with four overs to spare.

An enjoyable game against a friendly team, but as was to prove the case with England later, the Sunday XI succumbed to defeat and was probably 20-30 runs light of a defendable total.

Man of the Match: Ross Cameron
(report by Jason Pawluk)