Good weather

The weekend sunshine saw us all travel to Marston Green, A combination of Bromhall and Zubairs directions eventually saw PJ get us to Marston Green, We won the toss and chose to field turning in a good bowling and fielding display on a very slow low track to knock the "green" over for 104.

In our innings the only batsman failing to take note of Skipper carey's advice of "we,ve all seen how the wicket has played, be positive but stay on the front foot" Was the skipper himself who was dismissed playing back to a short ball that kept low!!!! The only other wickets we lost were Tompkins, needing only 10 runs to win he tried to end the game quickly by hitting in out over cover only to spoon the ball to cover and Zubair who fell to a dubious decision with only 6 runs needed. Both wickets that probably would not have fallen had the game situation been different. Batting second no one in top 4 failed with good performances from, Zubair khan with 35, who showed a lot of restraint and paitence on a difficult wicket to bat on, Phil tompkins with 32 and Phil Jeffries who scored an unbeaten 17 hitting the winning runs. In the bowling department the whole team was delighted for Arslan Mahmood who claimed his first 1st XI League wicket, of which I am sure there will be many more to come and Zubair who bowled well with little luck , PJ Picked up two wickets to keep his points tally on the players ladder ticking over.

It has been the introduction of the players ladder that caused some interesting discussions amongst the boys, with wicket keepers being well rewarded for their efforts with the gloves, which sees two of the leading players on the ladder being the two main keepers at the club(dunno how long we can let bromhall stay near the top for)! Points are rewarded for performance thoughout all three senior sides at the club and the leading 3 players will win prizes at the end of the season. With points being awarded double for points earned in a winnning game all boys were happy at the weekends results.

The evening saw quite a few people attend the world cup sweep stake and first presentation night. Phil Jeffries collected the first award for his excellent perfomances with Bat and Ball and just shading out Zubair Khan. The partnership that these two have formed in the heart of the batting order is excellent and both have deservedly been nominated for one man of the match award each so far this season by league umpries. Buphinder Chana and Richard Buttle collected their awards for 2nd and 3rd team respectivley. No junior awards were possible this month due to the poor weather but next month we look forward to Juniors being awarded too.

Nigel Udoh and Lizzie Haynes look in strong positions with their picks out of the world cup sweepstake with Nigel picking holders Brazil and Lizzie taking England, outside chance includes Phil Jeffries who took France among the bad picks were an un-named Captain who managed to pull out Angola, Ecaudour and USA !!! Better get down to william Hill.

On another note well done to Ashfield Batsman Ollie Thomas who completed his second appearance for England Counties XV this season, turning in a solid perfomance converting all of his sides tries.