The 23^rd of April saw the start of a new season for The Mighty Greys, and brought new opposition in the shape of Horley.  The Greys batted first on what looked like a good pitch, especially this early in the season, and got off to a very solid start.  Hatrick had moved up to open with the skip and looked every part the opening batsman.  Together they put on 51 for the first wicket, a partnership of crushing cut shots from Biff and textbook drives from Rick.  Biff was eventually out for 28 but Rick carried on to make his highest score for the Greys, a classy 39 before being well caught in the slips.  The bowling from Horley was pretty decent, and the Greys middle order failed to make much of an impact.  The slower bowlers from Horley induced a number of across the line swipes from various Greysmen with Alex, Terry, The Kid and Zach going cheaply.  Dom played well for his 30, and with contributions from Evil Ben, Alan and Good Ben the greys managed to scramble to 161 from their 41 overs.  It wasn’t a bad score but another 20 or so would probably of been closer to par.

The second innings did not start as well as the first for the Greys. Gallagher bowled like a slag and got smashed.  Good Ben bowled much better and accounted for the opppo’s best bat with a lovely caught and bowled, and had the other opener caught well in the gully by Alex.  Robby replaced Gallagher and bowled some fantastic stuff with great accuracy, constantly going past the bat but was unlucky not to get a wicket.  Zach bowled well and picked up a wicket (and forced a retirement with a well-aimed beamer) and Terry picked up two with a devilish combination of flight and guile.  Dom bowled tight, bullying a child by consistently bowling short at him, and the skip bowled with good control to pick up a couple.  As well as the wickets picked up by the bowlers there was a run out from Gallagher that was pretty awesome, a direct hit from 30 or so metres to dismiss the Horley number 8 who had threatened to finish the match in quick order.  For this moment of surprising goodness at cricket PSM was awarded to Gallagher.  Despite a pretty solid bowling display from most of the Greys, 161 proved to be too few to defend, and Horley chased them down with overs to spare.  The Greys did well though to get Horley 9 down and on another day could have come away with a win against what was good opposition.

An opening loss but not a bad performance from the world’s greatest cricket team, and a new fixture for the future, the sun even came out for a bit.  All in all not a bad day.