Ian said that last season was a successful season as we stayed up. We only played 10 games and lost the first 4, so overall successful season. The thirds used over 30 players in 10 games which says something about struggle to get a team. Also there was a wide range of players ages. There are some promising that youngsters coming through. The team had a good cup run into the semi final and lost only on dubious decision from rule book.

MILTON 3RDS 60 ALL OUT (31.2 OVERS) J.MATTHEWS 20
NCI 4THS 61-8 (32.3 OVERS) J.COSTON 3-9
Milton 3rds arrived at Fenstanton for their opening game and were put into bat on a slow damp wicket. Runs were always hard to come by against an experienced NCI attack, who bowled accurately throughout as Milton struggled to 35-3 at drinks. The innings eventually reached 60 all out the highlight being debutant Jack Matthews 20 with Stuart Kelsey also scoring a good 11 not out towards the end of the innings.
NCI\'s reply started with two wickets falling in the second over soon to be followed by more as NCI also struggled to 33-7. However a valuable partnership by experienced players took NCI\'s score up to 58 before NCI scraped home by two wickets. Milton\'s bowling was lead by John Coston with 3-9 off 10 overs including five consecutive maidens, whilst Martin Coston also bowled well in two varied spells finishing with 1-15 from 10 overs.
Overall the match showed early season form and lack of match practice for a reorganised side.

CHERRY HINTON 173-8 (40 OVERS) S.Dye 2-18, R.Welton 2-53
MILTON 3RDS 103 all out (34.3 OVERS) L.Dye 25, A Thorne 19
A hot sunny day saw Milton 3rd's arrive at Bottisham V.C for a home fixture against Cherry Hinton 2nd's, with seven changes from the previous week. Milton won the toss and put Cherry Hinton into bat. Martin and Bobby opened the bowling on a pitch with variable bounce, but Cherry Hinton\'s top order were able to make a positive start. 15 year old debutant George came on and bowled accurately and economically, 10 overs for 31 runs but without any luck. Steven Dye took two wickets whilst liam kept well including two run outs. Bobby also finished with two wickets whilst martin\'s leg spin confused the batsmen with little success. Cherry Hinton's innings finished at 173-8.
Milton's reply lost an early wicket and then was slow to get going against Cherry Hinton's accurate pace attack. Liam top scored with 25 before being trapped LBW by a shooter. Wickets then started to gradually tumble, with Milton falling further behind the required run rate. Andy came in and played a respectable innings of 19 before a comical run out between himself and martin left him stranded. Milton's innings finished at 103 all out in the 35th over.

ELSWORTH 2NDS 155-6 (40 OVERS) R.WELTON 2-45, M.COSTON 2-38
MILTON 3RDS 146 ALL OUT (37 OVERS) W.CONLON 36, R.DANIELS 27
After last weeks rain-off, Milton 3rds were back at Fenstanton on a dry but windy day. Elsworth were put into bat and made steady progress against the Welton brothers opening bowling. After reaching 62-1 at 20 overs, Elsworth accelerated with wickets in hand to reach 155-6 in their 40 overs. Miltons bowling once again gave away too many extras including 23 wides.
Milton lost four early wickets whilst Martin Coston stayed at the crease. Andy Thorne and Fraser Confrey both reached double figures before getting out with the game seemingly lost. However the unlikely partnership for the eigth wicket between young Will Conlon and not so young Ray Daniels brought the game back within reach. After an excellent effort by both batsmen, both were frustratingly out as Milton fell just nine runs short of their target.

NEWTON 211-5 (40 overs) J.Coston 2-37
MILTON 3rds 199 ALL OUT (39.4 overs) P.COULSON 69, L.DYE 48
After another damp week Milton 3rds travelled to the rural ground of Newton On a sunny early summer day. Newton won the toss and elected to bat. Three wickets fell to George, Martin and Bobby as Newton reached 45-3 after 15 overs. At this stage two experienced batsmen put on a big partnership with many boundaries as all bowlers struggled to keep the run rate down. The partnership was finally ended by a batsman retiring hurt, before Newton reached 211 after their 40 overs with John Coston picking up two wickets at the end including a fine catch taken by martin on the long off boundary. Once again Milton gave away 40 extras to boost the oppositions score.
Miltons reply again lost two early wickets, and with the score on 23 Liam joined Phil. A tremendous partnership of 128 saw many boundaries but also sensible batting for singles by both batsmen. Milton were always up with the required run rate but unfortunately after Liam was well caught out for 48, Phil soon followed three overs later. With Steve having to leave after being padded up for ages, the tail end was unable to see home the runs. Once again Milton failed to chase down a target, however they gave a great attempt scoring thier highest total of the season in the process.

Histon 4ths 89 all out M.Coston 4-31
Milton 3rds 90-6 (23 overs) I.Coston 31 no
After another damp week, Milton 3rds arrived at Fenstanton with six changes in an older team than usual to face a histon side including several youngsters. Histon won the toss and elected to bat but was soon in trouble against the opening attack from the welton brothers. After being 10-3, wickets gradually fell throughout the remainder of the innings as the bowling was much better than previous weeks, with only 21 extras. Pete and Mohammed both picked up two wickets, whilst martin mopped up the tail with four. One Histon batsmen scored 42 not out as the backbone of their innings.
Milton\'s reply again lost two early wickets, but first dan and then fraser joined Ian to take the score to 78 before three more wickets fell. Milton reached the required total in the 23rd over for the loss of six wickets and picked up their first win of the season.
The P.W trophy was awarded to kiran for coming out to bat in a coloured one day shirt, falling over in his bowling run up.