Arun Wanderers 157 all out lost to Roehampton 159 for 6, by 4 wickets.

Arun won the toss on Sunday (as ever) and chose to bat.  With a strong line-up, hopes were high that Arun could post a total beyond Roehampton’s reach, but the innings did not get off to a good start when Jamie Carter was bowled by a peach of a delivery from Jimmy Chapman

From that point onwards, Arun’s innings stuttered, and although Sam Mellor batted for just over 30 overs, he could not find a partner to stay with for any length of time. This meant that he was unable to cut loose and play shots so the scoring rate remained moderate. Sam eventually departed for a steady 75 - which included some clean hitting to different parts of the ground - after a mix-up led to him being run out by the one-armed man at mid-wicket

Pete Mules (17) and Mark Rose (13) provided some support, but there was little else, and Arun were bowled out for 157, a few overs shy of their allocated 40.

For Roehampton, Andrew Dixon bowled beautifully, finishing with 3 for 18.

Arun Scorecard
G. Rees  11
J. Carter  0
S. Mellor 75
P. Smith 0
C. Gilham 12
I. Clarke 2
P. Mules 17
P. Atherton 3
M. Rose 13
L. Mellor 0
C. Seaton  1 not out

With a meagre asking rate of under 4 an over, Arun knew that early wickets would be vital. Arun started well in the field, and some watertight bowling from Jamie Carter - who bowled with real pace - and Pete Mules restricted Roehampton to just 6 runs from their first 8 overs.

However, from this inauspicious start Roehampton began to build, and after negotiating Jamie’s hostile early spell, Bradleigh Barker started to open his arms up against the change bowlers. With plenty of batting down the order, Arun knew that wickets were now at a premium. They got Roehampton to 91-4, with the valuable wicket of the hard-hitting Chris Jones

Debating-enthusiast Jon Evans was then dismissed with the score at 107, and when Bermuda-bound Brad Barker beparted a few overs later for a brilliant 82, there was a glimmer of hope for Arun

However, with Shoaban and Jimmy (normally top-order batsmen) still to come, Arun knew that it would still be a very tough ask and were banking on Shoaban’s penchant for taking insane gambles

As it was, these two saw it through, successfully ignoring the slip corden’s persistent encouragement to try and hit 6’s, which led to the normally mild-mannered Jimmy Chapman’s anger levels rising from “low miff” to “mild nark”.

Arun Bowling
J. Carter  8-3-20-1
P. Mules 8-2-21-1
C. Seaton 6-0-46-1
P. Smith 8-1-32-3
L. Mellor 2-0-10-0

(Sorry - no pics for this match)