The Racqueteers drew with St Giles (rain stopped play)
St Giles: 120 for 4 off 20 overs
Racqueteers did not bat
St Giles was expected to be a tough test for The Racqueteers, as they had won the season-opening King Alfred Trophy back on 2 May. However, fresh from Sunday’s victory over Westgate, we turned up at River Park in confident mood. St Giles batted first and a close and well-matched battle ensued. On St Giles side, their batting was solid and impressive, and the first wicket partnership garnered 48 runs and the second wicket didn’t fall until 87. On The Racqueteers side, Nick had an excellent opening bowling spell of four overs for 11 runs with fast and accurate bowling that frustrated St Giles. Greg, making his debut, followed this with – if possible – an even better 2 for 15 off his four overs and Mike C took a solid 1 for 21 off four. Mike’s wicket and Greg’s second were both terrific catches by Kendal at mid-wicket, who also dared the batsmen to hit near him with a number of athletic stops. Mike F took the final wicket, a juggling catch by Edmund who also performed his trademark diving stop at about the three-quarters mark. Guy, Richard S and Tom T also bowled two overs each, and strong fielding all round left St Giles on 120 for four after their 20 overs. This was a reasonable total, but also well restricted due to good teamwork provided by some excellent bowling and disciplined fielding. In essence, this left the match evenly poised. Unfortunately, as the teams were walking off, the heavens chose that moment to open in fair imitation of a water chute. After 15 minutes of this, there was no choice but to call the match off and retire to the King Alfred for sausages, rolls, the obligatory pint or two and thoughts of how it might have ended. We’ll never know, but this was a enjoyable and well-contested half match!
The Racqueteers Cricket Club 