After a heavy downpour the night before we were pleasantly surprised to find a dry road of a pitch for the Valley of Peace vs Hawkswood match, and a field with no surface water, and quickly drying off.
Having agreed on a 40-over match Hawkswood won the toss and elected to bat and got into their work straight away with T Dickson (26) & Ellis (39) both hitting it well.
Valley of Peace opened with the father-son duo of Struan (0-19 off 5) & Liam George (0-13 off 5) who bowled with good pace, bounce and especially movement from Liam. Kieran Williams (0-18 off 5) at first change troubled the batters and was also unlucky to not get a better reward after creating a number of chances.
The breakthrough came from Chris House (1-24 off 5) who took our only wicket before drinks. At the drinks break Hawkswood were 78/1 and it felt like it was going to be a very long & hot rest of the innings in the field.
However cricket is a funny game, and with the introduction of Kim Smythe & Wade Millar, an epic turnaround in the game occurred. Wade took the pace off & Kim got the ball moving as we saw (what felt like) 7 wickets fall for 7 runs, in 7 overs. Wade (5-23 off 8) & Kim (5-34 off 7) bowled through their overs and took the last 2 wickets to finish with 5 wicket bags each. This anomaly of 11 wickets taken was caused by us inviting their 12th man to bat as well as the innings finishing early and they had travelled so far.
With a fightback from Fitzpatrick (13) & P Dickson (11*) for the 10th wicket, Hawkswood put on a good total of 138 to chase.
An excellent lunch by our hosts was consumed as well as a number of amber refreshments, as we recharged the batteries for, we knew, would be a tough chase.
Our openers Kieran Williams (40) & Paul McCarthy (50* retired) showed all of their experience and ground out a solid platform as their opening partnership of 84 took the game away from Hawkswood. Reverend Cameron Pickering (9) and Michael Davidson (13) both came in and struck some lusty blows to support Paul McCarthy and get us across the line in the 33rd over.
As always the game was played in great spirit in a stunning setting. A massive thank you to Jesse for getting the last few players at the 11th hour, to Ants & Co for the groundwork, and to our hosts on the day.
Ben Larter
Valley of Peace (specialist) Captain
Wade Millar & Kim Smythe, 5 wickets vs Hawkswood 13th Nov 2022
