This game was billed up as the dress rehearsal for the big match against the Cotswolds, but it couldn’t have been worse for the Rosaneri players and supporters.

The day got off to a poor start following a mix up with the start time that meant that Rosaneri were ready and waiting with an hour left until start time. Things then got worse when we lost the toss and were invited to bat.

The Harlow team had a classic mix of older wise heads and raw young talent. The opening attack was a perfectly balanced pace and swing pairing that quickly removed the Rosaneri openers.

At this point though Rosaneri battled back hard with some excellent batting from Sheridan and Andy Underwood. Shell dropped anchor and Andy took the attack to the bowlers and quickly accumulated runs.

Both bowlers were taken off and the Pinks thought that the storm had been survived. But then the Spin Ball Wizard entered the attack. The young lad in question had a brilliant variation in pace and turned the ball enough to cause errors of judgement. He ended up with an amazing 8 wickets and totally blew away the Rosaneri middle and lower order. Only Nick Shewring showed resistance with a patient 21 before he fell victim to the young wizard.

Ruthless Captain Albert of Harlow could of perhaps eased off the slaughter when the wizard had secured his 5 fer, but the attack was unrelenting and Rosaneri tail had limited answers.

107 was always going to be hard to defend, and Captain Shuttlewood certainly had one eye on the gathering storm clouds at tea.

However, Rosaneri took to the field with belief and a good attitude and it wasn’t long before Gareth secured a vital early breakthrough. Steve Shewring bowled beautifully at the Railway end and bagged 2 well deserved wickets to give the Rosaneri supporters real hope.

Marcus entered the attack and grabbed a wicket with his very first ball to actually put Rosaneri firmly into the contest as Harlow were rocking at 26 for 4.

Unfortunately that was as good as it got, and two talented youngsters picked off the remaining runs without too many scares.

It was not the dry run for the big one that we wanted, but the real positives were that Shell, Bloater and Nick were back amongst the runs against a solid attack.