With the rest of the county awash, Belmont remained (almost) dry. The Fixture Secretary’s XI, fielding first in what started as a T20 in rain, elected to change it to T30 when the rain stopped, but continued to struggle with the ball shooting off the wet wicket. In the opening overs extras scored heavily!
Among the many highlights in a low scoring game was the return of John Parry, resident in Shropshire, so a real journey of faith to drive into the rain; the successful bowling debuts of Barney and Jonty Taylor, Willaim and Henry Roberts, Seb Leggatt and Alex Denoon Duncan; and the exceptional catching of all. Simon Allport’s dive forward at mid-off, and Jake Ward’s pirouette at mid-wicket stood out, but nothing went to ground all afternoon.
Theo, for whom 2010 is a season of firsts (century, hat-trick), as well as keeping with distinction and being the leading run scorer, added another first as an umpire, when he no-balled his father to much comment from beyond the boundary.
