Poole town 4’s arrived at the rather blustery Slades Farm to face Winton 4’s. Reed won the toss and inserted Winton looking for another strong bowling performance to give the batsman a reasonable target. Brindley again bowled excellent line and length on the artificial wicket that gave nothing to the bowlers, restricting Wintons run rate and taking wickets including an excellent low slip catch from Stuart Peters. Tom Perry supported nicely from the other end leading Winton to give plenty of chances to hand, some taken but too many were not.
Billy Michael bowled well again giving nothing easy to the batman as they fell further and further behind the rate they would like to be at. Stuart Peters bowled excellently defending a rather short boundary very well and taking two wickets in the process. Captain Reed also restricted the run rate whilst the batsman continued to play and miss almost every ball. Poole eventually bowling Winton out for 140. At the break seemed very chaseable despite the injury to wicket keeper and opening batsman Phil Sansom.
Poole opened up the batting with the youthful pairing of Billy Michael and James Bice. Billy fell early for 1 whilst James Bice played positively scoring a wonderful half century characterised by excellent shot choice and a solid technique. Some of the cover drives were exquisite and the pose was held after the shot remarkably well. James eventually fell for 53 having already broken the back of the chase. Jo Dykes who came in at 3 and was excellent support for Bice as he racked up the runs nicely. Jo was caught behind for 24 and despite initially not walking he did eventually (this was a reaction to a rather ugly incident during Wintons batting performance). Smethurst on debut and Lucas both fell cheaply but Poole remained confident in the batting talent yet to come. Hellawell and Sansom eventually seeing Poole over the line with 15.5 overs left in the game.
Skipper Matt Reed offered the following "Player of the day certainly goes to James Bice who gave winton a real lesson in how to bat on their home pitch. I am also very proud of the team for the way they reacted to what was several rather unpleasant scenes from one individual from Winton. The outstanding attitude of 10 individuals from Winton was overshadowed by the behaviour of one player and a spectator. Poole used this poor behaviour as motivation to push on for victory."
Special thanks must go to Roy who came along to umpire in what was not wonderful cricket weather and Glyn who created a beautiful colour coded score book yet again.
Winton - 140 ao - 38.1 overs
Tekeli 38
Scott 31
Brindley 4-18
Reed 2-11
Poole Town - 141/5 - 24.3 overs
Bice - 53
Dykes - 24
Best 3-38
