Sidbury CC began their new season with a visit from Long Compton CC, a touring side from the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, writes Simon Rowe.

Both sides we relieved to get the game underway. Sidbury, due to the amount of recent rainfall, not to mention snow some six weeks before, making the ground preparation challenging, and Long Compton, who were frustrated that one of their other fixtures over the weekend had been cancelled.

The visitors were also out to seek revenge after losing the same fixture last year.

Although ground conditions were extremely soft, thankfully the game was playable due to the recently laid artificial wicket. Special mention also goes to one of our kind sponsors, St Johns School, for again supporting our village side this year and growing junior section.

The visitors won the toss and elected to bat in the pre-agreed 30 over format. Alex Paget and Steve ‘Midge’ Howes opened the bowling and restricted the scoring in the opening overs, but found it tough to get a breakthrough.

Despite the slow scoring rate initially, the visitors had wickets in hand and gradually grew in confidence and became accustomed to the conditions, steadily picking up the run rate.

A wicket finally fell, through an excellent catch in the slips by Paget. But the fall of the wicket only made way for a more capable batsmen. The next partnership quickly developed, putting the home side in a commanding position, soon passing the 100 mark and providing a platform to go on and post a large total. Sidbury’s bowlers, considering it was the first game, stuck to the task well, Steve Crick, finding his line instinctively, Rob Bolton also chipping in with an impressive spell at the end, and serving up an even more spectacular run out!

Young Henry Williams, also making his debut for Sidbury, was another to bowl well and the visitors closed their innings on 203.

In reply, Sidbury started cautiously, Phil Grove and Ben Pollard finding their feet and seeing off their opening pair.

After completing the hard work and getting established, they then unfortunately lost their wickets. A partnership in the middle order with Mark Bishop and Simon Rowe took the score past 50 and the run rate started to increase.

A couple of wickets fell, which brought Rob Bolton to the wicket, who started to enjoy his time in the middle striking some impressive sixes.

Rowe fell for 37 trying to push the score on and catch up the increasing run rate.

Sidbury went on to post a respectable 140, but could never sustain the run rate required to get close to their opponents.

Sidbury are in action on Saturday when they hosts a local side from Withycombe.