Elstow Enjoy Melton Park Sunshine

Great Melton lost to Elstow by 22 runs in a Friendly at Melton Park.

Great Melton played host to a touring side on Thursday 1^st august in Elstow Cricket Club from Bedfordshire on one of the hottest days of the summer.

Batting first Elstow made an excellent start playing their shots and once C. Greenslade and M. Farmer were removed from the attack they soon tucked into some wayward bowling.

All of the hosts bowlers, with the exception of C. Greenslade and Michael Farmer, went at around 7 an overs M. Stevens (69) and M. Sampson (103 ret) took the hosts attack apart.

Once those two had departed the middle order were just as belligerent, as R. Thiarra (54*) and P. Johnson (51*) put Melton to the sword to post a mammoth total of 304-4.

Melton got their reply off to a similar manner to the visitors being aggressive as C. Greenslade (60) and G. Ducker (13) hitting regular boundaries. Ducker departed and Whiddett soon followed bringing Joe Greenslade to the crease and played and excellent innings of 59.

The middle order collapsed somewhat and with Moxon (11), Hales (20) and D. Bunn (0) departing swiftly it looked as though at 189-6 Melton would be well short of the target and maybe lose by over 100 runs.

The lower order had other ideas though, as S. Phoenix (30) rolled back the years ably supported by M. Farmer (27) and J. Bickel (15*) adding 83 for the last three wickets in the last 10 overs of the innings, putting on a show for the growing crowd at Melton park on a glorious summers evening. Eventually running out of overs and wickets the hosts ended only 22 runs short of what would have been an incredible victory.

With some fine cricket, unusual entertainment form the visitors including their “Army Man” pose every time there was an extra bowled and some 580 runs scored it was an excellent day of cricket with a very friendly bunch and Elstow would be most welcome back to Melton Park in the future.

Elstow Innings. 

H. Wisson b. Bickel 0, J. Stringers b. Greenslade 4, M. Stevens ct Bickel b. Clarke 69, M. Sampson 103 ret, R. Thiarra 54 ret, P. Johnson 51*, T. Thiarra b. Phoenix 0, L. Griffin 5*. TOTAL 304-4 (19 Extras). C. Greenslade 5-0-21-1, M. Farmer 5-1-19-0, J. Bickel 5-0-44-1, G. Bunn 3-0-25-0, L. Whiddett 4-0-37-0, J. Greenslade 5-0-39-0, N. Clarke 5-0-47-1, G. Ducker 5-0-38-0, S. Phoenix 2-0-15-1, D. Greenslade 1-0-14-0.

Gt. Melton Innings.

C. Greenslade b. H. Thiarra 60, G. Ducker b. Course 13, L. Whiddett ct Wisson b. Course 4, J. Greenslade ct Boyle b. Stevens 59, J. Moxon b. Strimmer 11, T. Hales ct Griffin b. Danally 20, D. Bunn ct Stevens b. Danally 0, S. Phoenix 30 run out, N. Clarke ct Wisson b. Danally 5, M. Farmer b. Lendfill 27, J. Bickel 15*. TOTAL 283-10 (28 Extras). D. Course 6-1-25-2, T. Thiarra 5-0-36-0, H. Thiarra 4-0-36-1, H. Wisson 5-0-23-0, G. Boyle 5-0-31-0, J. Strimmer 4-0-27-1, R. Danally 6-0-54-3, M. Stevens 3-0-19-1, A. Lendfill 2-0-20-1.