The 2s travelled over to Corley, one of the nicest grounds we've played at this Summer. It was a hot, clammy day and unsurprisingly, after winning the toss the Corley skipper decided to have a bat on an excellent looking wicket.

Dave Evison and Neil Thorne opened up for Earls and Satchwell soon confidently showed what a good pitch it was hitting both bowlers through the line for boundaries. The score had reached 16 when Evo got us on the board enticing the other opener Law into a false shot up to mid-on where Stuart Reeve, despite losing it in the sun managed to cling on. There was more success on the very next ball as Thorney pinned the new batsman Tuckley LBW (16-2 off 4 overs).

Satchwell continued to play his shots and got the home side up to 43 by hitting Thorney for a big six over Jack Perrin's head on the long-on boundary. However, bowler and fielder got their revenge when "the even slower ball" persuaded him to try again and Jack took an excellent catch low down running in off the boundary (43-3 off 8 overs).

Colby Snipe replaced Evo and Ateeb Shah replaced Thorney. Both bowlers were causing the batsmen problems who rode their luck with a number of catches disappointingly put down. Elliot eventually replaced Tibby and we got our next wicket in his third over as he clean bowled Thatcher for 38. Manning followed soon after pinned LBW by Elliot for 41.

Ian Hughes replaced Colby who had bowled 5 overs for just 7 runs in his first spell as the run rate slowed. Hughesy was bowling his usual tight lines and eventually Fackrell lost patience and was caught at mid-wicket by Jake Dennison with a good running catch. Khan didn't last much longer picking out Reevo as Earls pressed. Tibby came back for a second spell and was rewarded by clean bowling Wallington with a "wrong 'un" after beating the bat several times.

Woolacott had come in at 8 and raised some eyebrows as to why he hadn't appeared higher up the order as he played good shots all around the ground. He was ably supported by Thompson as the pair pushed on in the closing overs. Woolacott closed the innings slapping Elliot for six back over his head as they finished on 217-8. Somehow we'd managed to bowl 52 overs but didn't realise until after the game!

Reevo and Tibby began our reply and were ticking along nicely until Tibby was LBW to Woolacott for 13. This brought Ed Clews to the crease and he and Reevo batted magnificently putting on 147 for the second week and batting Corley out of the game. There were some excellent shots piercing the fielders and taking advantage of the lightning outfield. Reevo went on to score 89 before falling to Wallington. Jake replaced Reevo and took apart Whatsize for four boundaries before the bowler got his revenge with an excellent running catch on the extra cover boundary. The 33 partnership had got us over 200 and almost home. The skipper Chris Harrison came in and with Ed saw us over the line with six and a half overs to spare.

A very good run chase and 24 points gets us up closer to Thimblemill who lost yesterday hopefully setting up a winner takes all last match of the season in a couple of weeks' time. Next up for the team is a home match against Four Oaks Saints on Bank Holiday Monday. The away game was a close fought match so we'll need to be on our mettle.

Earlswood Cricket Club

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