The Season Is Nearly Here

A perfect day of weather in early April gave the club a great opportunity to get 22 players out practising ready for the season ahead.

A mixture of players from all teams throughout the club formed the 2 sides for the day. The 'Away Team', lead by 2nd XI Captain Dan Harris were put in to bat. The first 50 partnership of the season was soon brought up, with Paul Paginton and Sean Parker playing freely and picking off some of the looser deliveries.

Early chances and near misses soon became a first wicket, as Paginton chipped a catch off of Tom Codling to give the 'Home Team' their breakthrough. Another steady partnership began to build, before a mix up between resulting in Adam Tribbick being run out for 19 with the score just shy of 100.

Up stepped Jake Goodwin, who was clearly beaten for pace with his second delivery and bowled by Jo DaCunha for 0. Parker continued on past 50 before giving a simple caught and bowled chance to Conor O'Shea to end his innings on 67.

Christy Millar got off to a promising start with a couple of swept boundaries, before picking out the lone boundary fielder to give Andy Mildenhall his one wicket of the day. This left Paul Davies and Wahab Khalid to put on a solid 80 partnership before Davies retired to allow captain Harris to finish the innings, setting a score of 257 off of their 40 overs.

The second inning saw a more chaotic start. Danny Baker was given out LBW first ball to an inswinging delivery from Conor Cleary. Chris Aubrey soon followed with a caught behind dismissal off of Cameron Baden to leave the team 18/2. Josh Codling began to steady the ship before being bowled by Cleary with another good inswinging delivery.

At 32/3, Marc Williamson and Alex Kill had to try and rebuild, however the bowlers were still applying pressure and came close to claiming further wickets. As the batsmen settled, more boundary opportunities began to present themselves. Williamson soon moved past his half century with Kill playing a supporting role.

With the score now rattling on to 170, Williamson retired to end a 138 run partnership. Nathan White joined Kill at the crease and the two moved the score along despite some sharp spinning deliveries from Khalid, who was unlucky not to bowl both batsmen.

Kill retired on 51 with the required runs down to 40 . Tom Codling and White whittled the score down to just 16 runs needed, before a moment of madness meant White was stumped off of Khalid. Adding insult to injury, a group of merry MK Dons fans ensured White received a resounding send off as he trudged back to the pavilion.

DaCunha and Codling calmly knocked off the remaining runs to seal a win with 2 overs to spare. The game provided a great opportunity for the players to get some overs under their belt and to give people a chance to see what needed to improve before the season kicks off in May.

Man of the match: Marc Williamson
Next Weekend: 1st XI Away v Purton. 2nd XI Home v Nationwide