Helperby 3rds vs Sessay 3rds

Saturday saw an encouraging performance against the Division leaders with some strong performances by junior members of the team (and some of the older ones).

Winning the first toss of the season Sessay were put into bat. Stuart Cross and George Swiers both bowled an impressive opening spell each picking up one wicket and restricting Sessay to around 3 runs per over.

Runs continued to be tight with the change of bowlers as Chris Fryer picked up a wicket in his first over, although thereafter the Sessay number 4 and 5 batsmen had more than their share of luck with catches just falling short and inside edges narrowly missing the stumps.

After 33 overs Sessay were still in the nineties. However the batsmen began to pick up the pace and despite Stuart Cross picking up 2 more wickets in his second spell Sessay closed on 172 for 5, some 40-50 runs more than they looked like getting not long before.

The Helperby fielding was good throughout the 45 overs and the bowling generally tight.

In reply Helperby got off to the best start of the season reaching 47 without loss with both Peter Mitchell and Alex Clayton looking confident, running well and keeping the run rate ticking over. George Swiers continued his good batting form after Alex Clayton was caught on the boundary for 18. Two wickets fell in quick succession as Peter Mitchell was run out by a throw from the boundary and Dave Haddon, suffering with a calf injury was caught on the boundary.

George Swiers kept his head down and consolidated well with Rob Challis and the pair put on 34 runs in good time before Rob was also caught on the boundary. At 90-4 with 25 overs still to go a win was well within our grasp. However a rapid clatter of wickets saw the last 6 wickets fall for 10 runs which meant we ended up 100 all out.

In the field we had been competitive until perhaps the last 8-10 overs and whilst batting we had been ahead of the game for the first 20 overs. Unfortunately we were not able to keep up the necessary level throughout either innings although there were encouraging signs for the rest of the season.