With the securing of our overseas player, Lester, the pre-season chat in the 1st X1 was positive and full of optimism for the forth-coming season. However, come the end of August, there was a general feeling of disappointment that we had only matched our previous seasons league position of 7th.
Once again, as in recent years, we failed to get off to a winning start. The month of May saw us win 2 matches and lose 2 matches, and this pretty well set the tone for our season in that we were consistently inconsistent, especially in the batting department. We were in strong positions in both of the games that we lost, however, our inability as a team to post a competitive total against St.Cross and then chase a mediocre total against Portchester cost us dear. To have lost 2 games so early on in the season was a blow, and maybe we need to look at our immediate pre-season preparation.
The highlights of May were the game against Portsmouth & Southsea, with Lester & Peter posting a century opening partnership and Lester going on to score a ton, and at Waterlooville where Joe, steaming down the hill, wind behind him and calves pumping, took a six for.
Our performances in June improved with wins over Hungerford and Alton, however our inconsistency was still there as we lost by 1 run to Compton & Chandlers Ford in a rain reduced run chase. The last two games in June were rained off.
Away at Fawley produced one of our better performances of the season. Batting first on a challenging surface due to the amount of rain that had fallen, we applied ourselves and set a challenging total of 150, which turned out to be more than enough. The following week saw us beat a poor Bramshaw, before the rain fell again.
Into the final month of the season and a fine win at U.S. was capped off by a ton from Peter. Unfortunately we fell away a little afterwards, with defeats to Locks Heath & Calmore.
Overall our batting was not good enough or consistent enough to enable us to improve upon our league position of 2006. Only Lester & Peter scored runs consistently, with Lester averaging over 50 and Peter scoring 470 runs. Our bowling was a test for most teams, with only 3 opposition batsmen scoring fifties against us. Neil (19 @ 8.74) and Joe (20 @ 17.50) put teams under pressure from the start, with Fred (21 @ 11.48) & Keith (18 @ 16.39) taking the pace off the ball in the middle of the innings.
It will be a challenge for us to improve our league position next year. For whatever reason, there appears to be little competition for places in the first X1, and when selecting the first X1 we always appear to be down to the bare bones.
The whole team would like to thank Dave, Penny & Paul Goodman for their help during the season and for putting up with us. We would also like to thank Bob for the huge amount of work he does on the ground, and everybody who works 'behind the scenes' to make this a great club.
Finally, I think everyone who has been involved with the club this year would agree that Lester has been a fantastic asset to the club. He has shown that investing in and having a great overseas player does not just benefit the 1st X1, but the whole club. This is especially important in relation to developing our Colts, and the time & effort that Lester put in with coaching our Colts will more than make up for any expense the club incurred in obtaining him. We mustn't lose sight of the fact that we exist as a club to play cricket, and that an overseas player should not just be seen in terms of an expense.
