Brave Fight at Stowmarket but still Defeated

Stowmarket CC   270 For 2

Watling 145 Not Out, Brett 82.

Hartest and Coldham Hall CC  143 All Out

S Ryder 37, J Armstrong 25

Codd 5-35

   An unexpected turn of events when Ben Atkinson under went a very late fitness test on a shoulder which was going to rule him out for the rest of the season made a late return to the team to try and bolster a side which had already had quite a few drop out through work and injury.

   Stowmarket won the toss and decided to bat with Watling who scored a century at the Richards Oval again repeating the effort and again remained unbeaten after the allocated overs had been bowled.

   Six bowlers were used with Jack Armstrong and Steve Ryder taking the only wickets plus coming out with decent economy in a Stowmarket side making the most of what was on offer.

   At tea Stowmarket had reached 270 for two so it was a dauntless task in reaching this target however the resilient Hartest and Coldham drew strength on Richard Carter with Steve Ryder taking the sting out of the Stowmarket attack surviving the first eleven overs before Carter was bowled only 15 runs away from a 50 partnership. 

   Dave Armstrong had a brief appearance edging one behind to the 70 year old wicket keeper who was to take a further catches and stumpings.

   Chairman Jon Ralling entered the fray nice to see him back in the fold, cut and pulled getting on with anything he could hit but in typical fashion walked after a fine edge behind.

  Captain Ben Atkinson not showing any signs of his shoulder injury swung the bat but his timing was not as crisp but still found the boundary a couple of times before being caught in typical fashion deep on the boundary edge to a very good catch.

   Jack Armstrong who is taking over the captaincy next week strode to the middle with confidence and played the same way moving the score on but lost partners along the way the first being Steve Ryder who has been in wonderful form recently scoring 37 runs which coming from last week when he carried his bat through the whole of the innings plus bowling his ten overs a fine effort indeed.

   Jim Marlow hung around playing well reaching 11 before Codd bowled him, followed shortly after by Josh Borley, but Shaun Faires came in and looked comfortable but Jack Armstrong skied a shot to perish in the deep for 25.

   Shaun was accompanied by Jay Davenport who added a few more runs plus using up the overs it was no early finish all credit to Hartest to keep on fighting even though the odds were stacked against them.

   Jay Davenport was stumped for 9 with Nick Rutter coming in but could not last and unfortunately chopped a ball onto his stumps ending the innings on 143, with Shaun Faires on an unbeaten 13.

   Catches have not been are forte but we took two catches one which was quite a super effort from Nick Rutter and also Dave Armstrong who picked off a catch in the deep like a professional player, also young Josh Borley took the gloves and did a decent job so some improvements coming along.

   Next week it is a home game against Cavendish and hopefully even though no Captain we hope a few players could be back as the games are fast running out, the season is close to a finish, so lets go out with a bang!

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