It feels different but in many ways, cricket is just the same
Cricket was back at Goodwood on Sunday and the first fixture of the season was against Eastergate CC. The weather was glorious and the ground looked resplendent.
Goodwood lost the toss and were inserted. Rob Carver and Owen Spicer dispatched the ‘vector of disease’ to all corners of the ground with some tremendous strokeplay.
Eastergate’s opening bowlers Saunders and Grant stuck at it but got no reward.
Reed (1-62) bowled Carver (47) but Mike Smith and Owen Spicer took the score on to 143 before Owen was lbw to Dakic (1-25).
Smith and John Heyworth put on 84 in the last ten overs. Smith scored 107, Heyworth 32, and both ended not out as Goodwood finished on 242-2.
Under the new guidelines players provide their own tea and sit on their designated, socially distanced chair.
Fresh from a match the previous day and a 15-mile bike ride that morning Matt Geffen (1-23) opened the bowling for Goodwood.
He dismissed Saunders (9) while James Mayne (2-47) disposed of A Bateman (16) and Smith (0).
Stanley Mayne (2-15) was the pick of the bowlers.
Johnny Heaven’s welcome return to Goodwood colours saw him bowl well (2-43), aided by a rare catch from
James Mayne. With the exception of Drake (30) and J Batemann (47) Eastergate never really got going. There was an excellent knock at the end by Dakic (54no) but it was all too late.
Spicer bowled with pace, John Clifton teased and Eastergate finished on 188-8.
Thanks went to Richard Geffen for his hard work putting everything in place to make it happen and to Matt Geffen and Tim Odell for maintaining the ground to such an excellent standard.
Littlehampton v Pagham Pagham soon lost both openers with only ten on the board. Nick Smith was dropped when on seven but went on to make 52.
Wayne Green rolled back the years and looked very classy for his 32. But from 1173 Pagham subsided to 149 all out in the final over.
In reply the home side soon lost the dangerous James Askew to the spin of Sean Rutter. They recovered and it looked like a home win. But very tight overs from Smith and Rutter left them needing 38 off four overs and they fell seven short. Nick Smith took 2-15.
Ashling v Knowle Village When Ashling finally got the season under way on Sunday, four weeks of net sessions appeared to have been of no use as their first four batsmen fell with less than 20 on the board.
The flair of Vaz (48) allowed Ashling to post a total of 92 with extras being the next highest scorer. Knowle used nine different bowlers with Eales’ 2-5 the best figures.
Ashling bowled well with fierce spells from Charlie Colley (2-26), James Crundwell and Vaz, who took five Knowle wickets between them, with four caught behind by Adam Shaul, wicketkeeping for the first time.
However there was to be no miracle as a steady 47 not out from Mcquirk saw Knowle cruise home on 96-5 after only 21 of their allotted 35 overs.