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North Holmwood batted first on another beautiful early May day on what looked another cracking easy paced wicket with a very short boundary.
Skipper Mike 'Wyo' Cleal must have been mortified to find his team at 50-5 after an hour after some poor shots and unlucky dismissals looked to have shortened the game with the possibility of a beer match looking ominous. Captain of Vice, Andy Morgan, was first to go caught behind groping at a wide swinging delivery. Ollie Wall succumbed to a straight, very slow delivery much to the bowlers amusement for a duck. Darren Jordan then contrived to pull a ball back behind himself, into the ground and on to the wicket with enough time to turn around and see it. Richard Cairnes strode to the crease with the eyes of many hoping to see some lusty blows after a recent failure or two, they were not disappointed as as he hit straight and hard for a quick 16 including a huge six over square leg. Alex Wyatt too hit a couple of lusty blows before getting a little excited and missed a straight one for 11. Ian Page then hit a career best 32 which included a couple of super strokes mixed in with a few ugly ones!!! All the while Andy Guest was creeping towards a 50 only to find his demise came 1 short of his target That left Daryl Goff and Ian Elliott to pick up the tempo and that they soon did with powerful blows to all parts. Elliott went on to make a quick 53 with Goff left unbeaten on 51 at the close.

Tea was, as usual, very good.

In reply Morgs got a wicket first ball as the opener guided one to short slip where Guesty comfortable pouched it. The mixture of ridiculous and sublime came to mind as for the next 40 minutes the bowling was either good or poo! The skipper struggled early to find a length and was punished severely by the other opener whilst Morgs suffered with a few slaps through fine leg and mid wicket depending on which part of the bat was being used. Wickets eventually started to fall, Morgs finishing with 4, young Alex with 1 and the spin twins of Darren 'Warney' Jordan and Ian 'Murili' Elliott trying to dig the tail enders out picking up 2 and 1 respectively. A final mention to Gav Morrison who played at short notice, fielded well and even took a decent catch at point off 'Warney'. Wibadune finished 8 down, a draw earned.