A 3rd XI with few familiar names and only ten players performed creditably in an entertaining game at Masshouse on Saturday. Mollie Burke and debutant Abigail Crampton got Ways off to an excellent start reducing Pedmore to 9-3 on the opening overs, but Pedmore then hit back with a big hitting partnership between Smith and Nawaz, who both reached rapid 50s. Two wickets for Anusha Chauhan halted the Pedmore charge, and at 118-6, Ways had every chance of bowling Pedmore out for an achievable total. However, more big hitting and another fifty for Middleton saw Pedmore finish with an imposing total of 164-8.
For a while, Ways looked well on the way to chasing this down, thanks to an outstanding opening partnership of 96 between Will Leech and Anusha Chauhan. Will struck the ball powerfully, the highlight being two successive sixes over wide long on, on his way to a maiden fifty for Ways and a personal top score of 62. Anusha supported him well in reaching 31 and Mollie Burke batted well at four in scoring 21. At 123-2, the game was still well balanced, but once Anusha was gone, no one else could stay with Mollie, and the remainder of the innings had something of a binary feel to it as Aimee Denton took 5-19 and wily old Paul Maley wrapped up the lower order with 4-10. But in a week where the club struggled to get sides out, this was a creditable performance, and where 2 or 3 young players really put down a marker for regular inclusion next year.
Report by Ian Garrett