The 3^rd of May saw Blakedown Cricket Club get the 2009 season underway with a first ever visit to Hallow C.C.
Travelling with a mixture of youth and not knowing the opponents, no one knew what to expect on a bright but breezy day.
Hallow won the toss and elected to bat and made a solid start, scoring 65 before losing their first wicket.
They continued to score well and after 30 overs had passed the 150 mark, four down.
Then came the collapse, with the last six men going for 25. They were all out in the 37^th over for 179.
On the bowling front, excellent figures of 6 for 21 off 4.3 overs for Rob Chatwin.
Other wicket takers included 2 for Mark Swindells , 1 for John Goodman and also the first wicket for the club from youth player Ollie Stevens.

Blakedown started steady and with wickets in hand started to push and with some fine batting from Harvey Stokes (79 n.o)
supported well by Rob Chatwin (26) found themselves needing 76 off the last 10 overs.
The winning four scored by Ollie Stevens (20 n.o) with 8 balls remaining.
The game would have been won sooner if a certain M.Swindells had not decided to block a fierce drive and
certain 4 by Harvey, with his shoulder.

An all round good performance. The beer always tastes better in victory.

And that’s Over.

Stone 24^th May

We welcomed Stone to Blakedown for game four of the season, with 1 win , 1 loss and 1 game rained off so far.

The home side won the toss and chose to bat on a sunny warm afternoon.
An early wicket well , but then a stand of 59 between John Goodman (35) and Ollie Stevens (26) pushed the score on a decent rate.
Most batsmen chipped in, the best of which was Phil Brookes with a quick fire 27, this, along with a generous amount of extras, 35 to be
precise, meant Blakedown ended on 182 for 9.

Stone started quite well, but lost 3 quick wickets and never recovered.
Some tight bowling all round finally saw them all out for 102 in the 38^th over.
The wickets were shared evenly with Si Tranter standing out with figures of 1 for 14 of 8 overs.
So another win in the book .

Highwood Park 31^st May

Another hot and sunny day as we entertain Highwood Park and winning the toss has become the norm and we chose to bat again.
An opening partnership of 74 after twelve overs lays the foundation for a good total. Wickets fell at regular intervals ,
but with contributions from the middle order we finished up on 185 for 9. Main contributors were John Goodman 67, Harvey Stokes 26,
Russ Welbourn 25 and 18 a piece from Phil Brookes and H.Singh.

Some excellent early bowling saw Highwood lose their first 4 before they had reached 30,
they rallied a little but two more quick wickets and the game was all but over. 
A further onslaught near the end saw a tighter game then should have been but still finished 20 runs short.
Wickets went to John Goodman 4 for 15, Si Tranter 2 for 15 and Mark Swindells 2 for 20. This winnings becoming a habbit.