Full Fixture Information

Result Descriptiom

Lost by 10 wickets

Man of the Match

Dave Rees

Champagne Moment

Josh Edney's enormous six

Teddy Bear Moment

Andrew de Lotbiniere's record-breaking hopeless captaincy

Full Match Report

East Meon CC vs Petersfield ? 13th April 2025

EMCC lost the toss and were put in.

EMCC 212-9 at tea / Petersfield 213-0 with three overs left.

Match report:

It all started so well, when Ali Wheeler laced the first ball of the summer through the offside for four, comparisons with Zac Crawley getting England off the mark against Australia in 2023 rippled around the ground ? that Ali will have a better season than Crawley is undoubted, a further four in the over and Oli Atkinson hitting his first ball of the next over for four meant it felt like a good toss to have lost and being asked to bat wasn?t the end of the world.

Petersfield bowled well, their young tyros finding plenty of bounce and on the whole a fairly good line.

Ali was out for 11 caught at slip off one that bounced a bit, Hollis followed shortly afterwards for 6 fencing at one that bounced and was caught behind off his gloves.

Mark Davis then joined Oli at the crease, with both batting nicely the score ticked along at about 7 an over and Mark hit the first six of the season. Petersfield chopped and changed their bowlers and they all bowled well but still with the odd bad ball that was put away for four.

Mark, who?d got to a fairly untroubled 19 was then unlucky to be run out when Oli set off for a (very) sharp single and fairly sold Mark down the river as poor Mark, perhaps not as young and lithe as some of the number 4s that Oli has batted with over the years was several yards short by the time the wicket was broken.

It was a stupid run and was a shame as the partnership looked good. The score was about 90-odd for three at this point.

I (Andrew) joined Oli at the crease aware that although we were racing along at 6 or 7 an over we didn?t have many runs and still had a long way to go. We ended up batting nicely adding 50 or so, before Oli was out for a very nice 76 ? middling a wide long hop to point where a good catch was taken. But a nice start to the season nonetheless.

Chris Moor came out and then left shortly after with a sore shoulder, Josh Haslett came out and was LBW for 0 to their slow left-arm bowler, which brought Dave Rees to the crease with the score still only about 145 and an hour or so to go before tea.

Scoring wasn?t easy but we had one good over when their opening bowler was brought back on and I managed to hit him for 4.6.4.6 in the over, the two sixes landing in Neil Croft?s driveway which was nice.

But I departed not much later, mis-timing a (high) full-toss back to mid-off for 48. It was slightly depressing to realise that our square leg umpire hadn?t called a no-ball as he thought no-ball was only for balls above the shoulder not the waist?.

But, by tea we?d managed to get to 212; which didn?t feel too bad for the first game of the season.

Then it was time for tea. Another fine effort by EMCC ? with us all able to enjoy tea at our new benches c/o of the now shut Izaak.

The rain had mainly stopped by the time tea was over, it wasn?t exactly warm ? but we took to the field with a spring in our step and looking forwards to taking wickets and defending our total.

Hmm.

I don?t think we bowled really badly, but I don?t think we necessarily bowled many wicket-taking balls, but I don?t think anyone expected us to go 34 wicket-less overs as Petersfield chased down our total with three batsman getting to 50 and retiring and another ending up on 30-odd not out.

There?s very little to report ? Aaron Rees (4-0-23-0) opened up with Josh Edney (7-0-63-0), Josh dropping a very sharp caught and bowled. Mark Davis came on to try and bring some control to proceedings and on the whole succeeded, one (cocky) reverse sweep spiralling up in the air before gently descending between Aaron?s waving arms was memorable, Wayne (4-0-14-0) replaced Edney and Josh Haslett (6-0-36-0) took over from Mark.

But still no wickets; and Petersfield continued their confident procession to overtaking our score.

Dave Rees (5-1-12-0) even managed a maiden ? but that wasn?t much of a highlight really.

And so, with three overs to go, the Petersfield batsman edged the ball through wide-gully for four and the game was over.

Memories were checked and heads were scratched, but this may have been the first match where EMCC failed to take a wicket; certainly when the other side were chasing a significant total.

Man of the match ? Dave Rees for his batting and bowling
Champagned Moment ? Josh Edney for hitting a huge six
Teddy Bear Moment ? Andrew for masterminding an absolute thrashing by 10 wickets.