Written by Matt Collins
The Badgers welcomed the Old Somervillians to the Joseph Hood Rec. Ground in a game that was dominated by two knocks. Stand in captain, Joe Peach came to an agreement with his counterpart and the Badgers were batting first.
Matty Waters on his debut opened the batting and showed his intent from the off with a flurry of boundaries. While the runs were flowing from one end, Waters struggled to find a partner to support him with Pete Warman (25) the only other man to get to double figures. After Waters was eventually bowled by Daniel Khan for a destructive 58, the batting order wilted to Tommy McAhon’s medium pace as the Badgers fell from 111 for 4 to 126 all out.
At the interval, the feeling in the Sett was that the total was around 20 runs short of par, and the Badgers would need to be their best to win the game.
Early wickets were needed and Sam Allwood duly obliged by claiming the wicket of Vivek Lodhia first ball of the innings thanks to a sharp catch by Joe Kitching behind the stumps. Wickets fell at regular intervals and Old Somervillians were 58 for 7 at drinks in what was close to a perfect performance for the first 18 overs of the innings.
The opposition captain Sam Packer proved to be the thorn in the Badger’s paw as he produced a flawless batting performance. Despite Peach turning to the unorthodox actions of Waters and Tom Rex and Warman seemingly covering every blade of grass in the deep, Pecker proved undeterred as he battled his way to an unbeaten 80 and led his side to victory.
The wickets were shared around with Allwood, Peach, Martin Fitzgerald and Nick Foord each claiming two scalps. But it was not to be, and the Badgers suffered defeat as the Old Somervillians got past the finishing post with one wicket to spare.