Southgate 2nd XI vs Woodford Wells 2nd XI

The first pre-season match of the season saw Southgate 2nds head to Essex to face Woodford Wells 2nds. Arriving at the ground, blessed by a beautiful spring day, we were all eager to get the season underway. An uncontested toss, as both teams wanted to do the opposite of the other, we fielded first. Early pressure from our opening bowlers led to a runout in the fifth over of the match. This early success was unfortunately not continued as runs started to flow quite freely for the Woodford Wells top order. Whilst chances were created throughout the innings, our fielding (particularly catching) is something that most certainly needs work. A further runout after another mix-up by the Woodford Wells batters, along with a couple of wickets, had us chasing a rather daunting 300 against a side we found out were in the Essex Premier Division.

Our Batting innings had one focus to it: bat time. Seeing as the 300 might be a bridge too far, we opted for the approach to focus on some of the fundamentals, trying to get ourselves into form for the season ahead. Facing a very strong bowling attack, some of the earlier optimism regarding batting the full 40 overs quickly went out of the picture. With wickets falling at regular intervals, we unfortunately came up slightly short of the total set for us, being all out for 104. However, there is a lot to take from the game, and we will be better off for the match as the season progresses. UTG