Southstoke won the toss and choose to bat and Limpley Stoke smelt an early finish by skittling out Southstoke. Hannell's rejuvenated spin and Judas Nozza opened the bowling in an embarrassingly one sided opening period. Norris, playing his first match since defecting, bowled 43 dot balls from 48 in a tight spell picking up one wicket. Hannell caused the batsmen many troubles turning the ball sharply and using a lovely flight to deceive the batsmen into false shots, he picked up 4 wickets in his spell including a spectacular caught and bowled opportunity. The innings then dragged on as Southstoke fought back, Gregory took two wickets but gave away a few runs to give the innings some respectability, John Lumby picked up a wicket in his first over for the club with some accurate darts and Twist finished off the tail with two wickets. Southstoke all out for 104.

LSCC were sitting pretty after 16 overs with Southstoke 5 wickets down with barely 40 runs on the board, then the incident which marred the game, a ugly clash between Captain Fantastic Gregory and Star All-rounder Twist over the proposed bowling changes, it seems a power struggle is emerging between these two giants of Limpley. This incident needs to be sorted out quickly with fixtures coming thick and fast and it will be interesting to see who the senior players back in this duel of the Nicks. It was just a shame young Oliver Musclewhite, aged 9, had returned to support his beloved LSCC after witnessing a bribery enjuiced game earlier in the season only to see the clash between team-mates, what impression must it give to the future of LSCC?

After tea LSCC set off to tackle the modest target, Twist was bowled for 8, Fish bowled for 0, Clarke bowled for 2, Smith bowled for 37 after some big hitting, Richards A bowled for 0 and then finally Richards S, receiving one that didn't bounce was bowled also for 20-odd. The top six was wiped out, all bowled and LSCC were reeling at 68-6 chasing 105, Captain Gregory and Hannell then batted with maturity and sense to gradually chip away at the total with a mix of clean hitting and sneaky singles stolen, the pair saw LSCC home with over 10 overs to spare to win by 4 wickets.

Tom Hannell was man of the match with some excellent bowling and batting and Fish was kit boy. Some eagerly anticipated matches are coming up, a double header this weekend against Hinton and Bishopstrow will see LSCC cross swords with an ex-player!!!!

Chad of LSCC