In the annual friendly match against Madresfield, the young Martley side came away with a win.
With Madresfield losing the toss, Ollie Dunks put Martley into bat (with only 8 players there at the time of the toss, Ben Roberts might want to take note).
First act as captain was for himself to open the batting to hopefully carry on his recent form with the bat along with Doughie. Dunks taking a slow start to his innings of three balls before getting off the mark, soon reverted to his old ways of boundary hitting (16 and 54s) before retiring at 30. However the same could not be said for Doughie who despite hitting a nice 2 back down the ground to get off the mark only managed to get (3) before skying a cut shot to short extra off the bowling of Crossland (9-1). Next in was a recent addition to the club Luca Bhanghoo who was unlucky to only come away with 1 before being bowled by Pete Edwards (6-1). George Mullet Rose arrived at the crease fresh from his coaching sessions with Jack Haynes’s dad. George played some proper cricket shots before retiring on 30 hitting (6*4s). Sadly for OJ he couldn’t replicate George’s innings and perished for 4 to Atwood (17-1). Queue up Olly Saunders (30 retired) and Will Dunks (24) who put a partnership of around 50ish. Both went about their innings in different ways, Olly with his crab like batting stance deciding to hoick everything to the leg side and then Will running the ball down to third man for a single. Both batted well together with Olly retiring and Will eventually being run out for a quick single. It was then down to Jack and Watty to see the innings through however Watty had other ideas when he hit the ball back to the bowler who then flicked the ball onto the non stikers stumpts resulting in Jack being run out for 3. Watty (3) and Rushy (4) then saw the innings through with Martley achieving 152-5 off the 20 overs.
The second rogue act of the day for the captain was to allow Olly Saunders to open the bowling with a new ball. Surprisingly he did ok and only went for 11 off his two overs. Jack opened up the other end and some big hitting from Nick Waddington saw his first over go for 11 but he came back strong with his second over only going for 2. Next up was Will (15-1) and Doughie (15-0). Both bowled well with Will getting the wicket of Nick Waddington (24) who hit it to Ollie Dunks at mid off. OJ (15-1) and Simon Butler (15-0) came into the attack with OJ bowling Ben Waddington (16) who in the previous over had scouped Doughie for 4. Jack Edwards (20-1) came onto bowl against his dad (18) and managed to get him out when he hit it out to long off where Ollie caught a second one. At the other end Ollie (16-1) decided to bring out his attempted off spin and somehow managed to get one to turn resulting in the wicket of Crossland (4). George Rose (9-2) made a rare appearance in the bowling attack bowling tidily in the final overs before removing Horton for 15 who was caught by Will (after dropping two off his own bowling) and then OJ catching Wilson for a golden duck. Meaning that George is on a hat-trick when he bowls next. The final over was bowled by non other than professional grenade thrower Watty. With everyone placed firmly on the boundary Watty went on to take 7-1 the wicket came when Ollie Dunks decided he could actually catch this match (unlike every other game he plays) and caught Barry (16). A special mention to Caidler who retired on 30.
Madresfield ended up on 136-7 in what was a good and enjoyable match between both sides.
