Report by Daniel Mortlock:
On what the scorer recorded as a "muggy" day Stanton put us into bat, presumably hoping for some movement in the air and hence wickets with the new ball. Certainly their bowlers had the upper hand initially, with one not conceding a run until his 4th over and just three scoring shots in the first 6; but openers Cliff Dare and Will Taunton-Burnett had avoided any rash shots and slowly started to score, first in singles and then increasingly in boundaries. Their 50 partnership came up in the 17th over, but their next 50 runs came at a run a ball - they were scoring so freely that it seemed only a run out could separate them . . .
. . . which it duly did, the 105-run partnership coming to an end when Wilty (43 off 63 balls) caught short of his ground after an over-ambitious call by Cliff. New batsman Daniel Mortlock was then subject to the same test and made his ground, but only by way of an awkard dive that saw him unable to bowl - or, indeed, raise his right arm above the horizontal - for the next month. Fortunately, that's not really needed for batting, and so Daniel (run out in the end, but for 65 off 45 balls) was able to join Cliff (eventually dismissed for 75 off 103 balls) in exploiting the rather less challenging change bowlers. Unfortunately, our rather weak middle order wasn't able to do the same, nobody else even making it to double figures (although D. Davidson had made it to 9* off 6 balls before being dismissed going for a big hit off the final ball of the innings).
Still, heading out into the field there was a general feeling of confidence . . . that was quickly revealed to be completely misplaced. Wilty and Cliff follwed up their goodd batting with tidy spells of 1/29 and 0/16, respectively, and Faruk Kara was reasonably econmical, conceding just 33 from his 7 overs; but all the other bowlers went at more than 8 an over. Baz Dare (1/39) did take a late wicket - which turned out to be his last ever for FAS - but Stanton passed our target with 5.1 overs to spare and just 3-down (one of which was a "retired out" when one their players had to leave).