Once again we lost the toss and bowled first. After a late call-up, China provided the initial breakthrough, capturing two wickets in his first over. Although we were able to bowl some reasonable deliveries, Brighton was able to make us pay when we strayed, and the lightning fast outfield ensured that we received maximum punishment when we did. Matt Curry, another late call-up, provided some excellent defensive bowling, keeping the scoring rate down and picking up their in-form opening batsman. Hodgey bowled well from the other end, and along with KT (first wicket for the club) and Dom, picked up a wicket towards the end of their innings. Overall, they scored 6/240, and once again we had a difficult run chase on our hands.
Unfortunately, when we batted, we got off to a poor start, losing three quick wickets. Will Vickers, who had opened the batting, held the ship together for a long time, striking a composed 30 on a pitch that was starting to wear and keep low. Huggy was promoted up the order and played a very responsible hand, ensuring that we would at least see out our 40 overs. Towards the end we made a dash at avoiding the bonus point, with Hodgey striking a quick-fire 18 not out, and Kevin “07” Berry scoring a 5 as his first scoring shot for Old Carey. By the end of 40 overs we had fallen just short of our initial target of 120 runs, which was disappointing. We have a final chance to redeem ourselves next week on our road-trip to Geelong, so hopefully we can pull win number 1 out of the bag.
Peter Weymouth – 3rd XI Captain