DintonCC – Wiltshire – Report by Rich Cridge – 2nd July:
‘After a two week break due to the wet weather Dinton 1st XI were thankful to be back in action on Saturday as they hosted Four Mark. Stand in skipper Ben Coombes won the toss and on a hot afternoon had no hesitation in batting first.
It was Four Marks however who took the upper hand in the early exchanges as the host team soon found themselves in trouble at 39-3, Ben Coombes (22) in partnership with Lance Harwood put their side back on track with a partnership of 56 for the 4th wicket. Following Coombes’ dismissal Harwood (63) continued past 50 finding good support from the lower middle order, particularly from youngster Sam Randall (21).
Towards the end off the innings wickets started to fall regularly but Rich Pearce marshalled the tail well ending on 30 not out to take his team to 196-8 from 42 overs. Best of the visiting bowler were D Hatherley 3-40 and S. Petersen 3-43 from their 10 overs.
Four Marks innings got of to a good start with the opener setting a steady platform it wasn’t until the introduction Martin Stennings (2-27) in the 16th over that wickets started to fall as the visitors slipped from 44-0 to 47-3 in the space of 11 balls. From this point on Dinton took control off the match taking wickets regularly. Four marks finished 67 runs short of the target as they were bowled out in the final over. John Sealy was the main wicket take with 4-25 he found good support from Arran Musselwhite 2-11 and Damith Gunawardana 2-36
Dinton 2nd XI were on the road to Godshill and after the host won the toss they bat first Godhill made a steady start with Steve Middlecote in particular making life difficult to the Godshill opening pair and it was Middlecote who made the first break though when he had Alan Cousins caught at slip by Mark Heaven for 23 with the score on 44. This brought Jason Cooper into join Clive Bealey. The pair then set about the Dinton bowling. Cooper in particular was quick to seize on any ball that was short and or wide. The pair added 128 for the second wicket in 19 overs to take the game away from the visitors. The partnership was finally broken when Rob Middlecote had Bealey caught for a fine 53. Cooper then added another 103 with M. Robb the former passing his century along the way. He was eventually out for 116 in the penultimate over caught going for yet another boundary this time of the bowling of Sean Howell. The innings finished short after on 284-5 Steve Middelcote finish with fantastic figures given his opponents score of 1-19 from his 10 overs.
Dinton knew this large total was going a difficult challenge but they were determined to bat in a positive fashions. Most batsman made starts but know could kick on to make a telling contribution. Dinton finished some way short of their target but it was the final two partnerships between Steve Middelcote (13) and Jamie Parry who added 34 for the 9thwicket and Parry in partnership with Howell adding 22 for the last wicket that took them to their final total of 168 number ten Parry top scoring with 35 not out’.
