Sons of Bacchus won the toss and elected to bowl first against what, on paper, was a strong Brigands’ batting line-up. In fact, the Brigands made slow progress against consistent and accurate seam bowling, backed-up by some excellent catching and ground fielding, which restricted the run-rate to little more than three-and-a-half an over for much of their innings. In the end, the Brigands were indebted to Mark Flewitt who batted for very nearly the whole innings for his painstaking 81. At the other end, batsmen came and went with none of them staying around long enough to put together a meaningful partnership; in the end, it took some lusty blows from the lower order to get the Brigands to a defendable score.
Unfortunately, when it was their turn to field, the Brigands failed to match the accuracy of their opponents’ attack and fielding. As a result, Sons of Bacchus got off to a flyer and were scoring at six-an-over for the first ten of their innings. The introduction of Jake Peach and Mike Beardall had the effect of reining back the scoring rate and a smart stop and throw by Douggie Henderson brought about the first wicket with a run-out. Neil Wood then returned to pick up two wickets, one an excellent catch by Gerry Northwood at mid-off. However, any hopes of a breakthrough were stifled by Guy Ladenburg, playing for his regular side, and Sons of Bacchus overhauled the Brigands’ total with overs to spare – and just before the weather closed in!
