Impressive batting performance caps off Promotion season

Scorecard and Highlights: http://didsbury.play-cricket.com/website/results/3864892
Complete Match Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewBB5bi2Uno

Didsbury finished a successful season on a high with a convincing and entertaining win over Brooklands. With promotion already secured, Didsbury went for the tried and tested pull-a-name-out-of-a-hat method for selecting their batting order. With Steve Green and Sam Leech opening, they got off to a flyer, plundering 82 off the first 8 overs. After Steve fell 3 short of a half-century, Sam and Fred Kamstra kept the scoreboard ticking over for their 48 run partnership before Sam slog-swept and picked out the man on the Deep Square Leg boundary for a well made 62. However, it was the partnership between Fred and Matt Gregson that was particularly devastating. In only 6 overs they smashed 80 runs, Matt hitting 5 sixes in the process before falling caught and bowled for 43 off 23. This triggered a mini-collapse, Didsbury losing Fred for 89 and Nick Anderson in the space of 3 balls. The runs continued to flow and thanks to the 20 off 14 from Didsbury's top scorer this season, The Tim Hughes, they were bowled out for 315, the highest score by a team in the CCCL this season, hitting 43 boundaries, including 12 sixes.

After a team photo delayed by a certain Irishman picking up a suit (!), the opening bowling partnership of Jonny Ridley and Tim set to work. Tim picked up a wicket in each of his first two overs. Runs came relatively quickly for Brooklands, surprising given the calibre of the bowling. However, they were pegged back with the loss of Chris Hart for an excellent 42. Matt soon brought out his secret weapon, Nick bowling leg-spin. After a shaky start, with a few 'looseners', he picked up the wicket of Baxter and then Buchan 3 balls later. Matt then brought himself on bowling left-arm chinamen. He soon picked the big wicket of Jack Bagshaw for 58. Then in a spell of fast-medium bowling to behold, Jonny got 3 wickets in 3 overs to clean out the tail and pick up career-best figures of 10.1-2-38-4.

An enjoyable day to close out an enjoyable and successful season for Didsbury cricket. Proceedings were enjoyed by many spectators, also enjoying the sun and the excellent barbecue.