A Bashley side with a blend of youth and experience took on Hythe & Dibden 3’s in a much anticipated first game of the season.

Hythe & Dibden won the toss and had no hesitation in fielding first. However opening batsman Ian Britton (45) and Luke Stubbington (20) made a steady start, putting on 77 for the first wicket before Stubbington was out caught and bowled. As too often in cricket, one wicket brings two and Ian Britton fell 5 short of his fifty. leaving Bashley at 77-2. Geoff Bettle (11) and Harrison Glew (5) looked to rebuild but Glew fell shortly afterwards. This brought Darren Britton to the crease and he started steadily, Britton & Bettle batted well to move the score over 100 before Bettle was bowled with the score on 106. This brought Tom Saunders to the crease who added some much needed aggression to the game striking a couple of great shots for four before being well caught for 9. Joel Hood (6no) playing his first game for the fourth team game, batted very well rotating the strike and playing some nice shots. Whilst at the other end Darren Britton went on the attack and hit back to back boundaries before being bowled. Hood was joined by Cavan Davey (11no) who alongside Hood batted very well to leave Bashley on 152 – 6.

Hythe & Dibden’s innings almost perfectly mirrored Bashley’s for the first 20 overs with both openers batting very well. Before RWE Paul stroke just before the drinks break to have opener R O.Connor bowled for a very well made 37. Fellow opener Meredith was then joined by wicket keeper G Mead who then steadily took the game away from Bashley and when Meredith fell for 36 with the score on 128-1 with 12 overs remaining the game looked beyond doubt. However Bashley were not in the mood to give up without a fight and with the introduction of Jack Griffith (5-18) and the re-introduction of Kris Laurent (1-25) and RWE Paul (2-28) from the other end Bashley took a flurry of late wickets. However it wasn’t quite enough on the day and Hythe and Dibden chased down the 153 required. In the end they were 8 wickets down with 4 balls to spare to complete and fantastic opening game of the season that was played in fantastic spirits.