The first match of the season for the Club on a bright early summers afternoon. The track at Caedelyn Park was typical of early season where the ball kept low and was not travelling through to the keeper. Also, the grass in the outfield was long on a big pitch making boundaries difficult to hit.

Cardiff Northern won the toss and elected to bat putting Duke of Clarence in the field. Steve Hood faced the first ball with Jimmy Vaile joining him at the crease. Steve played solidly at the start getting the measure of the pitch and the bowling allowing him to get his eye in. Jimmy, on the other hand, took his guard, swished at a wide one getting a leading edge and gave a simple catch to deep point. The first golden duck of the season! Ben Horlock came in at No 3 and played sensibly taking easy singles. Steve played a cover drive and called for a quick single. Ben started off late, the throw was accurate to the keeper who removed the bails and Ben was on his way back to the pavilion.

Dan Jones came in at 4 and was struggling to put bat on ball with his first four balls hitting various parts of his body. The perenial Duck Cup winner managed to get off the mark though giving him some comfort for the season ahead.

Run rate had been slow until Andy Gill took to the crease and was hitting the ball out of the middle of the bat. Steve, encouraged by Andy’s urgency and with his eye in, started to open up and carted the ball around the park. Andy scored a magnificent 22 but was eventually caught. Jason Gibson took to the crease and played a supporting role as Steve kept the run rate up. There was a great deal of running between the wickets as the ball would stop before the boundary. Jason caught hold of the ball but lobbed it a Duke of Clarence player who took a simple catch.

Charles Brain was the next man in with only 3 overs to go so little time to get set. After getting a top edge just over the top of the slips he played over a full toss and was bowled. Ashley Chedzoy walked to the crease full of confidence and was seeing the ball big. He connected with the ball well and saw out the remaining overs with 5 runs not out.

Steve Hood carried his bat and not only scored a half century but a superb 62 on a pitch where boundaries were hard to come by. After equalling the Club highest score on not just one but two occasions he flew passed it and is now deservedly the record holder.

Duke of Clarence came into bat and new boy Dan Perkins took the first over. He bowled well and was unlucky to have a wicket ruled out for a no-ball. He'll be an asset to Cardiff Northern this season. Brett Clarke opened the bowling at the other end and the batsmen were unable to get him away until the end of his second over. With the batsmen getting used to the bounce and bowling the field dropped back. The captain bought Ashley on who slowed the run rate down with some accurate deliveries. The captain came on to bowl at the other end and was able to break the partnership with a well taken catch by Dan Perkins.

Charles took another wicket after Steve took a smart catch at cover point.

Cardiff Northern had taken control of the match with some good bowling and enthusiastic fielding. There were some committed boundary saving dives, notably Jason Gibson, and strong long throwing from deep. A couple of gettable catches went down, not mentioning any names Dan Jones and Jason, and some potential run outs but it was not crucial by this point in the game.

Steve and Ben finished off the overs with some accurate bowing. Ben, after being frustrated of being called for some wides, bowled a quick in-swinging ball which hit middle stump. Two run outs were gained in the last over with some nifty work by Steve who picked up a poor return from mid-on turned and threw the stumps down at the opposite end when the dawdalling batsmen was out of his crease.

Even though we do not tend to nominate a Man of the Match on this occasion the award goes to Steve Hood for his magnificent innings, catch and runouts. Well done Steve.

  S Hood         Not Out                    62
  J Vaile        Bowled        Peasley       0*
  B Horlock      Run Out                     1
  D Jones        Bowled        Tyler         1
  A Gill         Caught        Elias        22
  J Gibson       Caught        Tyler         1
  C Brain        Bowled        Tyler         3
  A Chedzoy      Not Out                     5
  D Perkins
  D Manley
  B Clarke
  Extras                                    12
  Total                                    107-6
  
                     O   M   R   W
        Patel        5   0  28   0
        Peasley      5   0  22   1
        N Tyler      5   0  32   3
        J Elias      3   0  25   1

  A Offer        Ct (D.Perkins)Brain      29
  S Peasley      Ct (Hood)     Brain      18
  K Offer        Ct (Brain)    Horlock    21 
  T Griffiths    Not Out
  N Morse        Bowled        Horlock     0
  N Tyler        R/O (Hood)                4
  A Peasley      R/O (Brain/Hood)          0
  J Elias
  K Patel
  K Harmer
  A Hughes
  Extras                                  10
  Total                                   92-6

                   O   M   R   W 
        D Perkins  3   0  14   0
        B Clarke   2   0  17   0
        A Chedzoy  3   0  18   0
        C Brain    4   0  19   2
        S Hood     4   0  13   0
        B Horlock  2   0   9   2

                 bat bowl catch runout stumping play TOTAL
  S Hood          97   12     5     15            10   139
  C Brain          3   27     5      5            10    50
  B Horlock        1   26                         10    37
  A Gill          27                              10    37
  D Perkins             9     5                   10    24
  A Chedzoy        5    0                         10    15
  J Gibson         1                              10    11
  D Jones          1                              10    11
  D Manley                                        10    10
  B Clarke              0                         10    10
  J Vaile        -10                              10     0