First game and it was a close one!

The Horton Sunday side arrived at a sunny and beautiful looking Denton Road ready to dust off the cobwebs and play the first Sunday game of the year against an experienced looking Rushden Wanderers. We won the toss and decided to have a bat and see what we could post on what looked to be a decent batting wicket. Openers P Das and M Boffin looked steady against the opening bowlers and proceeded smoothly to 16 off 5 overs before Paul missed a straight one and was caught LBW in front by the accurate bowling of W Paull. This brought Alan to the crease to join Mitchell who was looking good but then played a little early at one to be caught driving for 7. Alan and Kev batted for a while with a couple of boundaries helping things but then Kev was bowled by an excellent inswinger from Paull for 9. When Alan followed soon after, also LBW to Paull for 9, we were 40-4 off 12 overs and things were looking dodgy with an early finish being possible. Fin Moffat didn't last long but then we enjoyed a really good partnership of 83 in around 14 overs between Finn Herrington and Ben Jordan, both players hitting great drives and running their singles hard to put pressure back on the fielding side. Finn was out for 41 with the score on 124 and when Ben followed soon after for 42, we still only had 126 on the board despite the recovery. This brought Ted Flynn and Jonathan Varghese together and there followed another excellent partnership of around 78 in the last 10 overs. Ted looked really solid and supported Jonathan well who was to retire on a superb 51 from just 32 balls with Ted finishing with a valuable 20 not out. We closed on 208 and felt we'd posted a pretty decent total and especially after the precarious position of 41-5!

We opened with our newest Sunday player, Ben Meachem who was playing his first senior game. Straight away he generated a bit of away swing and troubled the batsman when the ball was pitched up. Both Ben and Lewis bowled really well and regularly beat the bat. Lewis took the first wicket with opener Paull caught for 4 with the score on 5 - a great start. Ben then got reward for his excellent line by bowling the other opener for 19, 34-2 off 9 overs and game on! The change bowlers Finn Herrington and Jonathan Varghese kept things tight as Rushden looked to re-group with a stand of 42 off 10 overs before Finn got Cooper caught behind for 25. Good balls were troubling the batsmen but anything loose or short was duly punished with a boundary. All the while Rushden's keeper had been accumulating runs and ended up retiring on 50 after hitting eight boundaries in his innings.

With 10 overs to go we had Rushden 133-3 and were hopeful of keeping the squeeze on and getting the win. We had spin at both ends for a while with Mitch Boffin taking 2 wickets in his 3rd over including that of a dangerous looking Small for 30 and Fin Moffat getting reward for his spell with a wicket too. This brought skipper Alex Gaul to the wicket who immediately looked comfortable and started to up the scoring rate with boundaries. With 5 overs to go and needing 31 it was in the balance but the momentum was with Rushden and despite the experienced efforts of Kev and Ben Jordan at the death, Rushden sealed the win with 9 balls of the innings left.

We felt the game had slipped through our fingers a bit but we should take a positive from what a good game it turned into with many excellent performances along the way, it could have all been so different from a position of 41-5 when we were batting. Everyone played their part in what had been a great team effort.

We go again on 9th May away at Geddington.

Alan Pitt