Sidbury Cricket entertained Otter Brewery on Thursday night before hosting a touring side from London ‘Not the MCC’ , that has been making regular visits to the Millfield for several years.

Sidbury lost both fixtures, but that doesn’t really tell the tale!

The club has started to grow the number of fixtures and the playing base this year and with players are all keen to get involved and eager to get a game, Sidbury used 19 players over the two games which is a fantastic achievement for the small club and for a couple of the players it was there first chance for them to get some game time for the season.

Thursday’s 20/20 game was very much a social fixture, with almost all players getting a bowl and with batsman being asked to retire at 25 which also allowed most players some time in the middle with the bat.

Otter Brewery, who have played several games this year without a win, batted first and batted well to close on a very competitive 145.

Sidbury took on the challenge of getting more than seven runs an over and, led by Joe Gosse, looked on course. However, Goss swiftly reached 25 before retiring after which the runs dried up and wickets tumbled with the reply closing on 95, consigning Sidbury to a 50 run defeat.

In the evening sunshine the players managed to build up a thirst and so it’s thanks to Neil at the Red Lion for welcoming back the teams and also putting on food for the players.

The Saturday fixture was a 35-over affair and Not the MCC batted first.

Thanks to some accurate bowling and excellent fielding the hosts had the tourists in trouble at 55-5.

However, they recovered well to close with a daunting total of 208 on the board.

Helen and Bea (responsible for the tea at the weekend) put on a great spread and this probably played its part in the tourists looking laboured in the field!

After the loss of an early wicket, Windy Miller and Simon Rowe managed to put together a solid partnership adding 130 for the second wicket, which left the game nicely poised with 14 overs to go.

Wickets fell, but valuable contributions from long time Sidbury player Mark Bishop and Marcus Bennett meant that the 209 target was always within reach.

The last couple of overs were exciting and nail biting, lots of cheering and support from the sidelines, but sadly Sidbury came up short by just eight runs.

Nevertheless a great game of cricket with over 400 runs scored.

Sidbury’s next game is on Saturday against another South-East touring side this time ‘The Greys’, all are welcome to come down and support the team, the game starts at 2pm The Millfield.