Belstone v President's XI
A perfect summer's day graced the 19th annual meeting of Belstone v the President's (Peter Hammond) XI, with an engrossing game providing rich entertainment for the spectators.
The President's XI were put into bat and were soon playing fluently at four an over but although seven partnerships reached double figures the Belstone attack kept chipping away with wickets so that the highest stand was only 38 for the fifth wicket.
Matt Bowes played some well-timed strokes at three before he was caught by Harry Bushin running in from deep mid-off off left-armer Andy King for 37. King also hung on to a vicious caught and bowled to dismiss President's skipper Daryll Chapman for 10. Coming in at 54-3 Stuart Lord held the rest of the innings together. He reached his half-century in 92 minutes and was eventually ninth out for a battling 63. Bushin came back from an expensive start to pick up three wickets in his eight overs as the President's ended their 40 overs on 181-9.
Richard Drake was soon in dominating form in Belstone's reply, lifting a six onto the roof of the beer tent marquee.
He was bearing down on a run-a-minute 50 when he holed out to Chapman on the long-on boundary off Lee Easton (8-0-26-2) to make the score 79-2 in the 16th over. Jack Hatton then added 32 with Ryan Dennis (14) to put Belstone well ahead of the asking rate.
A middle-order collapse saw five wickets fall to Chapman (7-0-32-3) and Richard Boarder (7-0-37-2) for just 13 runs as Belstone slipped to 124-7. Skipper Bushin then joined Hatton and their match-winning partnership of 58 in nine overs sped Belstone to a three wicket win. Hatton reaching his 50 in 62 minutes and finishing on 75 not out and Bushin ending on 29 not out.
This result saw the club ending a three match winning run for the President's XI and in doing so they edged ahead 8-7 in the overall results tally.