A slow, low wicket greeted the 5th team when it visited Verwood on Saturday. Having won the toss the captain elected to field against the advise of some of his younger team mates. Some very good bowling followed, especially from the Bashley juniors. Daniel Hart was unlucky not to take a wicket and bowled his best spell for a long time, with his first six overs only going for 13. Coming back at the death his figures of 8-2-28-0 did not do him justice. Chloe Ann had 7-0-27-0, Martin Hayward Cox 6-1-29-0 and Sam Shean 6-0-23-1, all bowled pretty tidily. However the real stars were Sam Presland, who bowled through 10-1-18-2 and Thomas Hayward Cox 5-0-21-2. Sam bowled a fantastic spell of offspin to some big hitters, turning ball through the gate on a number of occasions. Thomas then came on after Sam to end of the innings and bowled his left arm spin very well, picking up two wickets. The fielding was much improved this week, with Martin Hayward Cox and Mike Jewell both showing the scars of a bumpy outfield, and special mention to Chloe Ann and Daniel, who fielded very well in the deep. The next area to work on are our extras. On a slow wicket, with runs hard to come by we gave away too many extras with 17 wides and 4 no balls. Verwood battled to 153 at the end of their 42 overs and at tea we were in with a shout. However perhaps due to our lack of cricket, but certainly due to some excellent catching by Verwood, we fell a long way short of our target. Mike Jewell batted well for his 14 but was out to a running catch at mid on, Thomas Hayward Cox received the best ball of the day first up and was unfortunately castled, and Sam Presland was caught spectacularly at first slip, diving to his left. There was some resistance by the captain (20) who then played a shot which on this pitch was never appropriate, and Julian Hood who batted very well at number 8 hitting three fours in his 23. If we had survived our 42 overs, we would have been close, however we were skittled for 82 in the 28th. A disappointing result, however the positives that come from the bowling of Daniel Hart, Sam Presland and Thomas Hayward Cox, ably supporting by some much improved fielding are the good thoughts to take forward to next weeks encounter with Winterbourne 2’s at Ballard.