Chelmarsh Cricket Club entertained Cound 3rd XI in an eagerly anticipated match up between two of the newly promoted sides.

It was a particularly exciting day for Will Fensome who was taking captain duties for the very first time.

Due to off-season difficulties and with league help and understanding our second XI, for 2024, was actually going to be our strongest XI. This team would include players that were ineligible for the Saturday XI. These ineligible players included Will Fensome, Andy Unitt, Matt Evans and Andy Callaghan.

Making their Chelmarsh debut, was Andy Dyke. Andy is an experienced cricketer who hasn’t played for a while but will be a great asset to the club.

He also looks a bit like Andy Unitt’s younger, better looking brother too.

Will won the toss and elected to bowl first on a wicket that he thought would help the bowlers.

Chelmarsh takes the field

Will craved a good start and so he went to the experienced duo of Andy Callaghan and Paul Glendinning as his opening partnership.

The veterans did not disappoint.

Paul Glendinning finished with 3 wickets for 6 runs from his 6 overs including 2 caught and bowled victims and Matt Evans caught the other at mid off. The batters were beaten in the air and off the pitch.

Andy Callaghan finished with 1 wicket for 13 runs from his 6 overs. Calla clean bowled Sam Edwards for 1.

Cound were left floundering at 19-4 with 12 of their 40 overs having been bowled by Chelmarsh.

Fensome then turned to a couple more Chelmarsh stalwarts, Andy ‘Big Rig’ Unitt and ‘Scuba’ Steve Lampitt. Both bowlers took a wicket apiece with Unitt also being pretty economical.

Will made his final bowling changes of the day. Kieran Wilson taking over from Andy with the captain, himself, taking over from Steve.

Will finished with 1 wicket for 2 runs from his 4 overs. Kieran took 3 wickets for 15 runs to mop up the Cound tail.

Chris ‘Fester’ Holmes has taken over wicket keeping duties on a Sunday and was tidy behind the stumps.

It was also a brilliant all round display in the field which restricted Cound to 85 all out in 30.5 overs.

Chelmarsh required 86 runs from 40 overs to win.

Chelmarsh reply with the bat

Will opened the batting all of last season for the 2s and so all that was to be decided was who would open the batting with Will. Will selected Matt ‘Murph’ Evans to accompany him out in the middle.

Neither batter lasted long, both victims falling to Neil Marsh.

Andy Callaghan joined Andy Unitt at the crease when we lost our second wicket and they steadied the ship with a 40 run partnership before Unitt was caught at slip.

Chris Holmes then joined Calla and helped us get closer to our target before Chris was caught having scored 8 runs.

Andy Dyke didn’t last long and was given out lbw for a duck which brought Paul Glendinning out to the crease at 5 wickets down and the game still in the balance.

Nervous times

We were not going to throw this game away were we? These were the thoughts on the player’s minds.

The two veterans used their experience to calm the nerves and see the mighty marsh over the finish line for a 5 wicket win.

Chelmarsh finished on 89-5, 20 points well earned.

If, after reading this report, you are interested in joining us at the marsh then please contact Andy at [email protected], everyone is welcome and we would love to have you aboard.