Freeman, McHugh, Underwood and Steve Shewring all bowled below the runs per over rate with McHugh and Freeman the main wicket takers. Steve shewring got his deserved wicket in his extended 7 overs, rolling back the years and pushing his body to the nearest ice bath.

Rose again proved expensive as an opening bowler in comparison but took his customary wicket to separate the top pair. Underwood bowled with visible nerves at the start but improved through his spell. Again, very accurate as last year but no wicket taken as at Botany Bay despite going close.

The talking horse of the winter nets, Nick Shewring, had a 4 over spell to forget. This has certainly not helped his all time figures. The ball being too slippy and coming through the back of the hand was the factor, and in retrospect, should had been taken off after this became apparent rather than kept on to endure another 2 overs. Ironically, Nick’s best over was his last. Cox and Downing returned respectable figures with Downing taking the wicket of a 6 year old to bolster his tally.

In comparison with the economy of the Tendring bowlers, its Freeman, McHugh, Underwood and Steve Shewring that matched the figures of experienced bowling from the other side.

Shuttlewood and Leigh created the record for longest opening stand this season and took a lot of punishment off fast openers. Shuttlewood showed too much respect to the bowlers but looked solid until run out despite backing up his partner who atoned by going on to play a captains innings and score nearly half of the teams runs off the bat. This shows that a proven batsman, being it Leigh, Cully or kiwi Hooper, is required in the line up to make the Rosaneri at least competitive.

Tyrrell and Downing both found the boundary rope before becoming the victims of very tight bowling. Underwood hit a customary monstrous quick 21 with 4 fours before falling to a freak delivery. Both Shewrings came and went quickly in the face of continued good bowling before the tail of 4 did not disgrace. Cox and McHugh fell looking for runs whilst Freeman hit a fine 18 Not Out that included 3 fours after not scoring for the first 5 overs in the middle. Rose did well to stand at the non-strikers end without shaking.

4 batsmen made it into double figures whilst 7 hit boundries. 5 batsmen were bowled clean which isn’t impressive and suggests 20-20 thinking being used in an innings double the size.

Overall, The main focus was to survive the 40 overs which the club has done at the first attempt and can be proud of this. The 30 something winning margin would had been closer with not conceding 31 wides, of 46 extras overall. A faster start at the top of the order could have helped as well. A loss at the end of the day but not without plus points and important weaknesses to focus and improve on.