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Two more wins in week 2

Apperley made it 4 wins from 4 after the second weekend of pre-season friendlies.

Saturday vs Westbury-on-Severn

Adie Mayes scored a rapid 51 from 50 balls after we won the toss and chose to bat. He was well supported by debutant Solly Dark who retired not out on 55* from 92 balls as we finished up on 217-6 from our 45 overs. It was the in-form James Nicol who got Apperley’s first breakthrough. He finished with figures of 1-11 from 6 overs while captain Dave Means got in on the wickets in a similarly tight spell of 2-12 from 6. Despite only managing to make 50-3 from 19 overs, Westbury-on-Severn battled to make it a tight finish, falling 10 runs short on 207-9 from their 45.

Sunday vs Eckington

Eckington won the toss and inserted us on Sunday. Matty Williams, looking slightly fresher-faced than the previous week, retired not out on 50* from just 38 balls. Backed up by fellow opener and captain Dave Steinham (32 from 59) and brother Jimmy Williams’ bullish 34 from 23 balls we reached 150 in the 23rd over for the loss of just one wicket. A mini-collapse then ensued as 152-1 became 162-6 before we recovered to 232-8 from our 40 overs, thanks in part to a lovely knock of 25 from youngster Harry Smith. There had been some controversy earlier in the innings when Sam ‘the trigger’ Fitzmaurice gave his captain out LBW, although replays seemed to suggest a review may have been lost if DRS had been in place.

Both of the Eckington openers retired not out having reached their 50s as the Apperley bowlers toiled. The highlight of the innings from an Apperley point of view had to be Jimmy Williams’ catch off his own bowling. The look of utter disbelief remained etched on his face for a good few seconds after the ball had stuck in his outstretched right hand as he followed through. As with the previous day our opposition gave a good chase but fell just 6 runs short on 226-5 from their 40 overs.

Coming up

Next up we have the final weekend of friendlies. As it’s a Bank Holiday we’ll have three games on: one each on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Before that we have adult training from 5.30pm on Thursday evening. See you in the next week as we look to continue our winning start to the season.

The matches in full: