The pitch was mown, the teas arranged, the teams arranged, rearranged and rearranged yet again.
Unfortunately, Pett only had 8, but thanks to Stevie “Judas” Faulkner bumped them up to 9. Both teams agreed that the game should go ahead to make the most of the sunny, if not rather windy May day.

The captains tossed the coin and Pett won. They decided to bowl meaning the Parkhurst boys were batting first again, hoping to break the 3-game pattern of batting first and not winning.

Mark Sheppard (104) and Willis Beale (2) were the first to face the Pett attack, whilst Luke Keeler and Mikey “Princess” Golitzine went out to umpire. It wasn’t long before Willis, cursing his fellow Netherfield teammate, was given out LBW off of C Mills’ and Luke was being replaced by Russell B as umpire, to get ready to bat at 4.

Mark Sheppard continuing to score was joining by Mark Sztyber (0), who made a brief appearance before being caught by G Chapman off of W Giles’ youthful bowling. Luke Keeler (3) was next in to join Mark Sheppard and the score ticked along nicely for Mark whilst Luke eased himself into the game. Unfortunately, just as he was getting into his stride Luke chopped a ball from “Judas’s” bowling onto his stumps.

Perry Holland (11), Mark’s 4th partner at this point, was up next. The runs flowed well until Perry was caught and bowled by “Judas”. This meant Max “The Beard” Sztyber (14) had his opportunity to build a quality partnership with the now renamed Mark “9 Lives” Sheppard, whose luck seemed to be continuing, being dropped on numerous occasions. All looked good with boundaries and quick singles flowing, but “The Beard” was cut short by G Chapman. Jonny “CBD” Eteson (9) was up next, batting down the order from his usually 3 / 4 position., but it wasn’t long before G Chapman had his next wicket meaning Brendan “Gilly” O’Sullivan (30) took up his bat at assist ”9 Lives” to his century and taking Parkhurst over the 200 runs mark. With only an over or so to go Sheppard was finally out, caught by C Mills off of “Judas’s” bowling.

Tom “The Tank” Burgess (3) entered the game, seeing off the final few balls giving Parkhurst a rather healthy 224 for Pett to attempt to smash.

Tea, rather lacking in the sandwich department, no finger pointing ….. Jonny, enjoyed by all. Fiery vegetarian curry supplied by the Sztybers warming the already good spirits of both teams.

Parkhurst into the field ready to continue. N Soan (55) and C Mills (26) opened the batting for Pett. The opening bowlers “Princess” and Russell Barker, though they had a few close calls, couldn’t quite close the deal during the 8 opening overs. After a change in bowling both ends C Mills was caught out by Sheppard off of Burgess’ bowling, to be replaced by G Chapman (3), who was caught by Eteson behind the stumps off of O’Sullivan’s bowling. Young W Giles (6) was in and did well defending the stumps against Burgess’ bowling before succumbing to the onslaught. C Giles (81) was now in and ready to go. N Soan scoring his half century went out to O’Sullivan to be replaced by T Blackman (6). A change in bowling again meant Max Sztyber & Perry Holland had their chances to slow the run rate. Unfortunately, after Max’s 1 over spell, Pett’s scored jumped up by a few too many runs, so the captain and Max mutually agreed that today wasn’t his day. Russell came back on, but still didn’t have any luck, whilst Perry managed to bowl T Blackman. “Princess” was now back on from the opposite end from before and the Pett score closing in on 200 managed to bowl out C Giles, T Challinor (0) & S Faulkner (0) to finish the game. Pett finished on 206 all out.