Penn Street vs Cranbourne

Cranbourne 239-9 (M. Robinson 75, B. Moore 57; G. Simon 5-60) beat Penn Street 178-9 (M. Bannister 62, M. Gloyens 50; R. Allerston 4-26) by 62 runs

In Royal Wedding weekend, to Windsor and to Cranbourne’s beautiful ground by the Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle – unfortunately a very hungover Penn Street side turned up following the festivities of the day before.

Cranbourne batted first, and a difficult task for captain Chris Fletcher was not made any easier when Jack Mendy had to be taken off after three overs. Paul Goodchild was bowling well from the other end, but without much luck. However, it was a day for debutantes. Neil Rankin, Simon Briggs’ brother-in-law, fresh from his initiation into the black arts of spoof the night before, achieved the first breakthrough. He was followed by George Simon, who, aided by a brilliant catch at gully from Richard Spooner (which made up for a much easier drop off the unfortunate Goody) bowled eight overs for 60 runs – but much more significantly, took 5 wickets on his Penn Street debut. However, the lack of bowling options told in the end, and some aggressive batting from M Robinson sped Cranbourne to 239-9.

In response to the large score, Fletch promoted Jack Mendy to No 3 in the batting lineup. However, it was Matt Bannister and Mark Gloyens who led the run-chase. Matt continued on his wonderful start to the season with a stylish 62, whilst Mark looked completely unruffled as he cut, punched and pulled to a convincing 50. Simon Briggs pitched in with a rapid 21 but the run rate was increasing and the remainder of the batting lineup folded rather feebly. 178-9 was our highest score of the season so far, but it was not enough.

Both Matt Bannister or Mark Gloyens could have been man of the match for their batting, but for getting his name on the Bat of Brilliance in his first-ever PSCC game, the Man of the Match accolade goes to George Simon.