All Saints played their first cricket match of the season at Beauchief Hall on Thursday 15th June versus a well-seasoned team from St Thomas, Crookes.
Losing the toss on a beautiful Sunny evening, we were asked to field. With a mixture of inexperience and a few guys who just haven’t played for a few years, we shook off the cobwebs with a fine performance in the field. Helped by some kamikaze running from the opposition, they were bowled out for 84. Nine of us bowled with everyone bowling tightly. A special mention must go out to Justin Synan and Dave Coleshill who took a couple wickets each. Also to Andrew Mitchell for some sharp fielding at point to run out three of their batsmen. At the interval, we were feeling pretty good that we could knock the runs off.
Our innings started positively, however, we got into a bad habit of each batsman hitting a boundary then getting out soon after. It didn’t help that Crookes had recruited ex-head of New Wine North – Ian Parkinson who bowled 4 tight overs of leg spin for figures of two wickets for four runs. With ten overs left we needed a run a ball to chase the total. Rob Cundill then hit his timing, running quick singles with the odd lusty blow to the boundary. With three overs left we needed 18 runs. If Rob had stayed to the end we could have got over the line but unfortunately, we agreed that batsman had to retire at 25. The last couple of batsman couldn’t replicate his timing and although Rob came back in with 5 balls left – we had too much to do. In the end, we lost by 4 runs, with Rob scoring 29.