Our annual fixture against North Down, this year hosted at The Green was played on a beautifully hot early June evening.  After the formalities of the photographs, as is tradition in mideweek cricket the away team batted first.

Instonians got off to a good start with Camron Williams and Nigel Skillen punishing anything that was short or wide with a boundary.  Cameron was the first to go we he stopped on a shot and was caught in the gully.  This brought the new club president Willie Oakes to the crease.  Around the same time the run rate dramitically dropped.  There is a coincidence there!

Nigel was next to go by virtue of an uncontraversial LBW, which brought captain Paul Dickson to the crease.  It appeared that the captain had a word with Willie about the run rate and to stop hitting it straight back to the bowler but we cannot confirm or deny that this happened.  After this however the scoring rate was increased and singles were flowing until Paul played all around a straight one (nothing changes) and was bowled. Peter Johnston continued his misfortune on the midweek team as a ball kept low on him and got under his defences, Peter Currie and Willie then continued to frustrate North Down's captain Robin Haire by continually placing the ball comforable singles or the odd fine slash through third man for 4.  Peter was out in the last over which brought Neal Jacques to the crease for the final couple of balls.  Willie held his nerve to preserve his career average with another not out of 25.  Instonians posted a total of 99 so North Down needed a round 100 for victory.

North Down's innings started steadily as Cameron and Neal opened the bowling tightly.  The Doc (Ian Hamilton) provided us with another example of his fielding prowess when the ball got past him at mid on.  He ran after the ball, tripped, fell flat on his face, got up and still managed to limit the opposition to 2.  After a tight first spell, Neal was replaced by John Johnston anbd Cameron by Nigel Skillen.  John continued to bamboozle the opposition with his unique blend of varying length and almost got the wicket of the Gililand except that the skipper dropped a skyer on the mid-wicket boundary. Rather upset at this he then proceeded to knock down the stumps from 40 yards nearly running out Robin Haire.

Nigel was getting the ball to reverse but careful batting ensured that North Down kept wickets in hand.  When Robin hit his own foot and was clearly hurt he took his agression out on the ball and a quick flurry of boundaries made the target look easliy with reach.  At this point Peter Currie's leg spin was introduced into the attack.  With 2 new batsmen at the crease after retirements, Peter set about a dramatic comeback by quickly removing the middle order and making the game interesting again.  It came down to 5 runs required from 12 balls, then 3 from 6.  Some sensible batting from the lower order from North Down secured the victory by 4 wickets.

Stew and refreshments were provided for and the evening was rounded off with Raymond Moreland and David Rainey holding court in the bar until chariots were called to bring this most enjoyable evening to a close for another year.  We look forward already to hosting the match next year!

Scorecard