Martley twos were sent packing by a belligerent unbroken 150 run partnership from Kempsey Amigo’s fourth wicket.
A fantastic turn out of 10 of the 11 players to get the ground ready at 11.30am, and following the early morning rain Jai Wickham, who was resembling a cousin from the Appalachian Mountains with the winter growth of his beard, lost the toss and the Martlets were unsurprisingly asked to bat. On a very testing track Martley fought hard to accumulate 177 for 5 courtesy in the main to an unbroken partnership of 101 by Rob Ganderton (40*) and an excellent 52* from Will Dunks. Stu Watt (21) who along with others were helped along the way by a fielding side who drop more catches than Martley.
Thanks to Mandy Gardner for the brownies and lemon drizzle cakes at tea which disappeared very quickly.
The Kempsey reply got off to an eventful start with a flurry of boundaries and wickets reduced to 27 for 3 in the fifth over, Wicko (2/49) and the Hooch (1/46) Sadly this was as good as it got as George (79*) and Johny (71*) took their time to get in and waited for the bad ball of which there were plenty. Neither offered a chance apart from a difficult diving effort from Max and took a particular liking to Fitchy and Stu Hayes with one six finding its way into the Tap and Run much to the dismay of the gathered audience. Resulting in a fielding change with your correspondent moving from long on to patio protection. Kempsey will be a promotion candidate this season so lets not get too downhearted at the result,
Nice to see Lynsey and Dawn back on the scoring bench, until they lost interest
