JOHN RICHARDS

ON yet another wonderful day for cricket, Hawk Green entertained Dove Holes and yet again the Green’s skipper, Josh Unsworth, won the toss and elected to bat – with the now usual pairing of Josh Hampson and Paul Needham facing the Dove’s attack of Sean Critchlow and Jack Gregory.

The track yet again proved to be fast and bouncy and ideal for batting, and Hampson and Needham did not disappoint.

From the word go both batsmen were into their stride with Hampson being the slightly more dominant and boundaries flowed, interspersed with the odd maximum and some very good running between the wickets, with an understanding that has flourished throughout the season.

It wasn’t until the introduction of slow bowlers Dan Walker and Dave Cartledge that the run rate slowed slightly and caused the downfall of Needham who was caught by Jones off the bowling of Cartledge for 60, 129 – 1.

Next to the crease was Peter Richards and facing his second ball was adjudged LBW to Walker for a duck, 136-2.

New batsman Ben Littler was looking good until he popped a delivery back to bowler Walker to be caught and bowled for 11, 160-3.

Jack Needham was next to join Hampson and after a hesitant start soon began to flourish.

Another HampsonNeedham partnership put the Dove bowlers to the sword in exactly the same manner as the opening partnership with plenty of boundaries and a couple of maximums.

Hampson with an array of beautifully timed shots through the offside and