Thankfully the weather was a bit kinder than last week's heatwave. Warm and slightly overcast conditions greeted the players at Burford Lodge, with a decent breeze blowing across the ground. Merrow won the toss and elected to field, which would perhaps have been Elstead's preference, and so Oli and Coen walked out to bat for Elstead.

It was not the start we wanted, as after Oli managed a single from the second ball, Coen got a great delivery and was bowled without scoring. That brought Stan to the crease, and he signalled his intent immediately with a quick single. That was the start of a good partnership for Elstead between Stan and Oli. They ran very well between the wickets, scoring at more than a run a ball. As the pair settled, both started hitting boundaries and after 8 overs we'd moved to 58 for 1. Then Stan called for a run that probably wasn't there and Oli was run out for a decent 20 runs off 30 balls.

Stan was now in and accelerating though, and as Jake came to join him at the crease, two more boundaries came off Stan's bat, before Jake played a lovely shot to register his first runs of the season. With Stan on 29 and one shy of retirement, he tried to slog a six and was bowled, but it was an excellent innings of 29 runs in just 27 balls. Stan's exit brought no respite for Merrow, as Harry was next in, and he and Jake continued the good work, scoring at more than a run a ball. Jake persished for 9 trying to accelerate the scoring, shortly after hitting a wonderful boundary 4, but as Benji joined Harry in the middle, the scoring kept up its steady pace.

Both Benji and Harry hit some lovely boundaries before Benji was caught out in the 18th over, but that simply brought Danny to the middle, and he hit a late flurry of shots to finish on 11* off just 8 balls, with Harry unbeaten (again) on 18*. Assisted by a fair few wides, Elstead had posted a round 150 - which we believe is a top score for this group. This was a solid all-round batting performance and shows that we can post big scores if we can get one or two players hitting retirement-level scores at better than a run a ball.

After drinks, Elstead took the field with Danny and Felix opening the bowling. Merrow had a couple of decent openers, with one in particular looking very strong, and although Danny and Felix bowled well, Merrow initially motored along, keeping up with Elstead's scoring rate. Stan proved expensive at first change, struggling with his line and length today, but Jack bowled very well again, taking the pace off the ball and making it hard to score runs. Up next were Harry and Benji, and it was Benji who prised out the first wicket, clean bowling one of the Merrow openers for 20.

At the half-way point, Merrow were 75 for one - exactly half of Elstead's score and arguably in the driving seat, but in reaching that score the excellent Merrow opener had to retire on 32 not out. With two new batters at the crease, Harry and Benji continued. Benji bowled nicely again today, but Harry (like Stan) struggled to find his rhythm today and had a rare wicketless day.

The same couldn't be said of Jake though, who took two wickets in his first over - the first well-caught by Oli, with the second a more routine catch for Danny. Coen got in on the act too, taking a well-deserved caught-and-bowled effort as Elstead ripped through the Merrow middle order. By the time Jake clean-bowled another Merrow batter to end with great figures of 3 for 9, Merrow had slipped from 75 for 1 after 10 overs to 104 for 5 after 15. A word now for Oli, who then bowled a game-clinching spell of really tight bowling, conceding just 4 runs from his 2 overs. With too much left for Merrow to do, Felix prised out a 6th wicket, and the 7th fell to a run-out on the very last ball of the match. Merrow had mustered 120 - giving Elstead victory by 30 runs.

Our batting was superb today - Oli (20) and Stan (29) got us off to a great start, with Stan in particular scoring at a rate which makes big scores possible. Harry (18*) and Danny (11*) batted well to get us up to 150. In the field we were mostly good, although focus and clamness under pressure can improve. Our bowling was wayward at times today, and we will look to do some training at Burford Lodge in the near future so our bowlers can become more familiar with the strip. Similarly we will work on wicket-keeping on the artificial surface, which provides a different challenge to grass. Lochy made some great stops today but with a little refining of technique can definitely become an even more effective player for us. There were some great bowling performances today though - Jake's 3 for 9 the highlight, but Oli's 0 for 4 was just as impressive. All in all a great win!

Players of the match as selected by Merrow:
Batter = Danny
Bowler = Stan