The Greys got off to a good start of the season with two wins in a row as we convincingly beat Upper Beeding by 76 runs.  

The Greys batted first. An inconsistent wicket coupled with inconsistent gustily winds led to the early wickets of Biff, Rick and Dom. Battling (!) the elements both Rob and Duncan started to play some spectacular shots, both eventually being bowled for 34 and 21 consecutively. Neither Duncan nor anyone else was aware I don’t think (or at least I wasn’t), of how the bail fell from the wickets – it looked like an unfortunate way to get out! 

To cement The Greys overall score Tel and I batted confidently but falling one run short of a whopping 100 run partnership. Tel hit some cracking boundaries, a pleasure to watch from the other end. His clear tactic of defending the good balls and hitting the bad worked until he was out LBW for 42. However I was first to fall for 49 runs as I played across the wicket to a straight ball which hit the stumps!  

The innings were finished off with some glorious batting from Alex and Dave adding an extra 40 runs to the board. The Greys ended up with a really positive total of 226 runs for 7 wickets. 

Double D and Ben opened the bowling. It was chilly, sunny and windy and we had the downs as a backdrop and even at one point the big full moon and sun oppositionally poised in the sky peering down upon us.  Beautiful. 

We all bowled well! A few erratic balls and a few too short and a few too full balls … but overall all the bowlers were eager to get a wicket and it certainly didn’t look like it was just the second game of the season. Ben, Dave and I got two wickets and Dom got one. Quite unfairly, in my opinion, Rob ended up without a wicket even though he really deserved one.  

Upper Beedings’ batting on the whole was pretty average. The opener Poulter had a good innings and scored 62 not out. He needed to, however, score a lot quicker and not defend so much for them to have any chance of winning. The other opener King looked like a solid batsmen but was out early on from a decent ball from Dave and an excellent catch by Rick. 

Short and sweet I hear you say?! I think/hope that I’ve covered all the major points so I’ll leave it there. Best of luck on Sunday for a potential hat trick! And then on the 5^th May the T20 Sussex Slam starts, exciting times!