The first game of the season was finally here. The weather was hot and sunny after heavy over night rain. At the toss the pitch was still damp but starting to dry out nicely. After losing the toss we were put in to bat, not the start to the season that I was looking for, but still a good decision at the end of the day.  The batting order lined up as: 1. S.Mchugh, 2. A.Smith, 3. L.Dye, 4. S.Mohanraj, 5. V.Anand, 6. M.Barton, 7. D.Clark, 8. W.Conlon, 9. C.Day, 10. J.Turner, 11. T.Defreston. A good start was needed for the first game of the season and this happened with an opening stand of 78, Steve was quickly out of the blocks for the new season and top scored with 43, this included 6 boundaries. Adam was slow to start but once he got going he powered 7 boundaries on his way to 39 with several impressive cut shots. Once Adam was out attempting to smash another boundary down the ground Liam came in, unfortunately he didn’t start his run tally for the season. Sandeep then joined Steve at the crease and they proceeded to add a 50 run partnership, Sandeep scored 33 runs picking up runs freely all around the wicket. Once Sandeep was out, Steve quickly followed leaving the new partnership of Vijai and Mark at the crease. Mark (1) soon came and went but Vijai started to find his form after trying to run himself out a couple of times and finished with 37 not out. Vijai was supported well by Dave (11) and Will (4) and we finished on a competitive 180 for 7. At the tea break this looked a defendable score as the wicket was starting to play up with a few ball misbehaving.  After a tasty tea, despite a complaint there was no Marmite sandwiches we set about our task of bowling March out.  A good start was needed with the ball and early wickets were required. Tom and Chris shared the new ball with Chris picking up the 1st wicket for the season in his 3rd over by bowling one of the openers. At the end of the openers spells the score was 36 for 1 in 14 overs, just the start we needed. Steve came on to replace Tom at the tescos end and had immediate effect, bowling a long hop with his first ball, the remaining opener smashed the ball to Liam at cover who quickly fielded the ball and with help from Dave ran out the opener who had been sent back by his partner at the bowlers end. Steve started his bowling spell with 4 maidens and only conceding 1 from this 5th over. Mark came on to replace Chris at the A10 end and began to weave his magic with the ball, bowling tightly and was unfortunate not to pick up a couple of wickets by having two catches put down. After drinks March started to accelerate the run rate and a change of bowling was required, James replaced Mark at the A10 end and picked up two wickets with his 2nd and 3rd ball. James bowled very well and had figures of 2 for 17 from 4 overs. Tom had a little burst of two overs at the tescos end but didn’t pick up a wicket. Steve then continued his fine spell and picked up 3 wickets in his final 4 overs and finish with fine figures of 3 for 34 in 12 overs. Chris and Tom then came back to finish of the final overs, Tom picking up 1 wicket and had figures of 1 for 37 from 11.4 and Chris picked up 2 wickets and had figures of 2 for 38 from 12 overs. Liam was excellent in the field and masterminded 2 run outs with accurate throws to Dave behind the stumps who quickly removed the bails. Unfortunately the fielding from the rest of the team needs work as there were 4 catches put down and several misfields, and improvement is definitely needed.  A good win for the for the 1st game of the season but improvement is need in the batsmen who need to kick on to get bigger scores after 4 players getting starts and none going on to reach 50. The bowling was good but the fielding let down the bowlers. Captains man of the match goes to Steve Mchugh for top scoring with the bat and some excellent bowling with the ball.