The teamsheet was pinned up after breakfast revealing the names of the starting XI and the responsibilities of the resting squad members.
To the surprise of Mr Castle and Mr Rowe the entire squad was ready and assembled in the car park on time for the 10:45 pick up before heading off on the 30 minute drive to the school. The match sponsors for today's game were Sylvia Taggart and BigJigs Toys who we thank for their support.
On arrival the outfield was being mowed, pitch rolled and boundary rope set out making the ground look a pretty attractive one. The lads were keen to inspect the pitch - possibly in the hope of seeing a green seamer or something similar to UK conditions!! What confronted them couldn't have been more different with a flat and hard wicket staring back almost screaming "bat first, please"!!
Unfortunately our captain for the game Josh Woodward lost the toss - possibly not helped by the lack of a visible head or tail on the coin!! Our bowling suffered from a bit of a wayward start, with the Combermere batsman picking up anything short and playing some very nice shots straight down the ground to the fuller pitched deliveries. They also ran very well between wickets with lots of quick singles frustrating our attempts to build pressure. The opening bowlers of Axon and Emanuel-Burns failed to break the opening partnership despite some good deliveries and with the score at 0/48 off 6 the ball was thrown to Dan Marsh. What an impact he had with his first delivery - a juicy, long-hop that the opening batsman flat-batted straight to Henry Axon, who held it for the first wicket of the tour. Marshy then continued to take wickets at regular intervals despite runs still being scored freely. At the end of his spell Marshy was sporting figures of 4/28 off 5 overs with the opposition on 4/101 off 15 overs.
Spin was then introduced with Danny Tomlinson getting some good purchase off the surface and creating a stumping in his first over, assisted by some sharp deflecting work from wicketkeeper Seal. The Combermere batsmen continued to bat well down the order and started to up the scoring rate, despite some steady bowling from Woodward, Cox, Mills and Tyler no-one was able to break a strong 6th wicket partnership. Eventually the return of the openers saw Axon pick up the much needed breakthrough with a good outfield catch taken by Rookie Wren, however by this stage most of the damage had been done and the hosts were sitting pretty on 6/241 off 31 overs. Another wicket for Marsh bagging his 5-for and dismissing Combermere's #3 for a well compiled 94, and a wicket in the final over for Cam saw the innings end on a sizable total of 7/267 off 35 overs. Much work would be needed with the bat if the tour was to start on a winning note.
A superb lunch of chicken or beef curry and rice & peas lifted the mood slightly and then the Harvey openers took to the middle to chase down the score. Marshy was unfortunately not able to re-create his bowling effort with his off-stump cartwheeling behind him from the first legitimate delivery faced on tour!!! 267 was starting to look more like 2067. As wickets began to fall regularly there was some resistance from skipper Woodward (29) and Cam (19), however the asking rate was increasing beyond 10 an over and with a couple of very dubious stumpings of Mills and Emanuel-Burns the task was looking well and truly beyond us at 5/68 off 16. Rookie Wren played a couple of very nice straight drives giving in indication to the rest of the team that runs can be scored but the key is to bat for long enough to give yourself an opportunity of scoring big towards the end of the innings. After 25.5 overs the boys were all out for 100, a 168 run loss to start the tour. Hopefully some lessons have been learned and the squad can improve the little things to make a better fist of our next game in a couple of days time.
Returning to the apartment the lads were keen to get into the pool and cool down before a team quiz, including a topical Barbados round. The room of Axon, Hulse, Tomlinson & Norris came out victors, giving their team a points boost in the Barbados Tour challenge. A few more hours in the pool followed before the lads retired to their rooms for some sleep and treatment for the numerous grass burns and gravel rash obtained from diving around on the baked outfield.
The scorecard is below and keep an eye on twitter for live updates.
