Fantastic start to the season!

Well done Ware!

The day started well with skipper Kevin Meakin winning the toss and putting Datchworth in to bat first on a difficult wicket. Kev and Jon Albon opened the bowling and almost straight away the wickets started falling. Two catches by returning Ware legend, Matt Gilewicz, off Kev's bowling. A confident looking catch by Rob Davies off Jon's bowling, and two caught behinds by Jamie Don, also off Kev Meakin's bowling to give him a 4fer already and leaving Datchworth reeling with half their wickets lost for under 20 runs.

In came Datchworth's hero though, Tom Braithwaite, and with the wicket seeming to improve with each ball bowled, he proceeded to singlehandedly recover Datchworth's innings, at one stage hitting Pete Devonshire for four fours in four balls! At the other end, much later, two more wickets eventually fell. Matt bowling a straight one to hit the wicket, and a catch by Albon from Ben Compton. Finally, at the road end, Fred Devenshire's leg breaks caught Baithwaite out coming down the wicket and Jamie knocked down the stumps for the stumping on 72 runs, well over half his teams score. Si Green finished off the 10 man side in the next over, Meakin taking Ware's 7th catch of the innings. 134 all out. Great fielding all-round by Ware, especially from the youngsters, and tidy bowling meant only 8 extras were given away.
After the best tea ever, courtesy of the Devonshires, Kev and Matt went out to bat and were in fine form, hitting 12 fours between them and putting on a first wicket partnership of 88 before Matt was bowled. Greeny was up next and delivered a quick fire 15, and then Jon Albon came in to support Meakin as he turned up the power with a string of fours and one six. The game was won when Kev hit a shot towards the pavilion and the ball stopped just inches short of the rope. Having run all the way to the boundary, the Datchworth fielder had clearly had enough and just booted the ball over for four and onto the 135 target. 'Av it!
A really great way to start the 2017 season. Well done to all.