Abberley began the season at home to Dean Close. Having won the toss we elected to field and Barnaby and Will C set us off on the right track with two good opening spells, Captain Will bagging the first wicket of the term clean bowled. This though brought the Dean Close skipper to the wicket who had made runs against us in the two previous seasons. He was a classy player who played patiently on the slow wicket. A hard chance was dropped by Alex off James who in tandem with Hugo bowled very promisingly. Unfortunately but not surprisingly there was one bad ball an over and they were punished. Abberley became even quieter as things drifted and Dean Close doubled there score from overs 10-17 up to 74 -2. The introduction of Will F and Dan gave us a boost and the return of the opening bowlers saw a flurry of wickets and only 10 runs conceded off the final 5 overs. A good response from the timid Abberley team but 140-7 off 30 overs was a good score.

In reply the two star Dean Close batsmen were their opening bowlers. One was quick but wild and Will F bravely hooked and pulled him for several early fours. He was looking really good before trying to attack a good ball and losing his middle stump. The momentum was then lost as Will C and James played correctly but without ever looking like scoring. Singles were not actively sought and the regular full tosses from their spinner went largely unpunished. The opening bowlers returned to take the heart out of the middle order with only 52 on the board. However Barnaby and in particular Hugo and Dan came in and injected some urgency into proceedings. The game was already lost but some degree of respectability was restored as we limped to 94-9 off our 30 overs.

Dean Close were a good team, their star players a cut above the rest and they seemed that bit more hungry than the nice but shy Abberley boys. However encouragement can be drawn from our opening bowlers, some potential with the spinners and the fact that the boys did respond without prompting to various situations throughout the game. Afterwards they could see where Dean Close had played better than us and hopefully we can take that forward into the next game.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, Robbie and Toby got the innings off to a steady start putting on 18 for the first wicket.The momentum of the run scoring continued throughout with everyone making valued contributions by sensible running between the wickets and occupying the crease for a sustained period. Oscar(27 n.o.) and Aiden (16 n. o) finished the innings with a flourish, posting a final total of 133-9.

Tom D opened the bowling and made an immediate impact , dismissing the opener in the his first over.With good support from all the bowlers and careful fielding,wickets fell regularly and runs were hard to come by Jack C with 3-7, and Toby 2-11 were the pick of the bowlers. Dean Close were dismissed for 84, giving Abberley victory by 49 runs.

A solid team performance to which everyone contributed.

We made a bit of a shaky start to our innings, 1 for 1 after two balls and 10 for 2 after three overs, 103 seemed a long way off. But enter captain fantastic and the ‘dos amigos’ !!! Captain Max began to put bat to ball ably supported initially by Alex, then by Jorge. We started to take singles in abundance supplemented by the occasional four as the bowling began to show weaknesses. The partnership between Max and Jorge was based on good sensible running between the wickets and hitting bad balls to the boundary. 59 runs later we were 103 for 4 from 21 overs and the game was won.

Well done boys a great all-round performance.