Tue 5th May – Foxhole Ground, Dartington

Stoke got their Brockman Cup T20 campaign under way this week, playing their 1st round match away at Dartington & Totnes CC.

Amazingly, Kyle won a toss and decided to bowl first, hoping to restrict the D&T batters to a low total.

Mike Smith and James Player got things underway with some very tight bowling and an early breakthrough by “Gary”, leaving the hosts on 17-1 after 6 overs.

Harriet Duke and Andy Ball continued where Mike and James began, keeping the scoring low, despite some aggressive shots from the D&T batters. Harriet with 2 quick wickets pulled them back again, with D&T on 50-3 after 14 overs.

Kyle Lardner and Chris Harrison shared the “odd” bowler duties with 2 overs apeice, allowing “Gary” and Mike Smith to finish their spells, and D&T ended their innings on 90-5

Some excellent bowling and a clearly tricky wicket to bat last on faced Stoke…

Olly Brown stood up as keeper/opening batter and hit a quickfire 22, and Kai Horsburgh continued his excellent batting form with a run-a-ball 20. But with wickets falling regularly it was left to skipper Kyle to smash one back over the bowlers head for 4, to seal the win, 8 wickets down! 92-8 off 16.3 overs.

A bit tighter than we had hoped, but a win is a win in the T20 cup, and Stoke will progress to round 2.