Sidbury entertained touring side Greys who were making their 10th consecutive annual visit to the area.

The match was sponsored by Touchpackdesign and, as seems fairly regular for the visit of the Brighton-based side, the Sidbury weather played its part with sunny condition, ideal for cricket!

With both teams full of keen sportsmen and eager not to miss the start of England Euro 2016 match against Russia, it was agreed to play the match over 30 overs per side.

Greys won the toss and opted to bat and, Sidbury, not too far off from fielding a full strength side, took to the field with new ball duties afforded to Alex Paget and Barney Stone.

With the Millfield, somewhat surprisingly, offering both pace and bounce the addition of sideways movement of the ball made batting difficult and, at one point the home side adopted a field comprising four slips and a gully – a sight not often seen in a Sidbury CC game!

The Greys opener and skipper, bravely stood his ground, at times taking balls to the gloves and ribs. However, whilst he did dish up impressive resistance, Paget and Stone did both manage to claim a wicket in their opening spells.

Sidbury then rotated the bowlers across Chris Fitzhenry, Nigel Lyon, Olly Paget and spinners Josh Reed and Simon Rowe. The Greys battled hard and gave precious few chances, gradually accumulating runs to close their 30 overs on 149-3.

The Sidbury reply was led by Ben Pollard and Phil Grove and the pair made light of the conditions with Pollard finding the boundary with ease and Grove proving to be a good foil at the other end and the score quickly moved to 25 for no wicket, the total looked well within the homes sides grasp at this early stage.

However, The Greys were not prepared to roll over and dug deep to bag wickets, leaving the reply a troubled 35-4.

That brought Barney Stone to the crease and he carried on where he had left off the week before when registering his maiden century. After a couple of overs of getting his eye in, Stone opened up and, together with Olly Paget, put on 90 for the fifth wicket with Paget finally falling for a knock of 44.

Simon Rowe joined Stone at the crease and played the supporting role, enjoying primre position to watch Stone take the game to the visiting bowlers.

One Stone six travelled like an exocet missile, hitting the boundary fence without rising any higher than seven or eight foot at any time! Stone saw Sidbury home with an unbeaten 75 and victory was sealed with nine overs remaining.

On Sunday Sidbury entertain Exeter-based Erratics (2pm).