Police Crush Coddington

It was a makeshift but buoyant MPCC XI that took to the field in the unfamiliar territory of the Quarry Ground in Mansfield, our home for the day owing to Thorseby's extended cup run.

Winning the toss, skipper Pete Quinn put the visitors in to bat, not really knowing what to expect from a track that only 48hrs earlier had been immersed in rainwater.

With his regular opening attack of Gabbitas and Davies absent, Pete looked to Graham Footitt and Darron Hall to take responsibility for the opening overs. Sadly for both bowlers, an unbelievably tight spell of 8 overs (4 each) which yielded only 8 runs for the visitors was not rewarded with a wicket.

Looking for the elusive wicket, the Captain turned to a mixture of pace in Neil Eggleston and a little unorthodox slow right arm from Glenn Longden. It soon became apparent that the pitch was going to be the winner, with Neil's pace restricting the run total to a trickle but never looking like yielding a wicket. Glenn however had clearly been practising with the kids again as from the first ball he had the batsmen in all sorts of trouble with an unpredictable bounce and a flurry of good length balls. Glenn's accuracy was quickly rewarded as Coddington opener Bedford edge one into the safe hands of specialist slip fielder Rem Fiorini. A moment later, lightning did strike twice as the remaining opener Perrett edged a Longden length ball high but not high enough to evade the outstretched hands of a diving Fiorini.

With Neil intimidating at one end, Glenn sensed more wickets were for the taking and took no time cleaning up Coddington's No.4 Smith with a vicious inswinger.

The visitors, by now in turmoil, looked nervous as a further bowling change saw Rich Blackwell make a rare appearance in the bowlers column alongside MPCC "guest for the day" Dave Priest.

Priest looked dangerous from the start with an armoury of spin, swing and bounce that the batsmen couldn't pick. Looking for runs that they so badly needed, Coddington's B. Hazeldine was clearly looking to go after the bowlers but only managed to chip one up to a grateful Graham Footitt at cover.

After a wild start, Blackwell soon settled down and was rewarded as he found the edge of Curtis's bat leading to a spectacularly low, one handed catch by slip maestro Fiorini.

The writing was on the wall for Coddington as Priest continued with his impressive spell, first cleaning up Feltimo for 0 before removing D. Hazeldine who hit high and long only to be caught by Blackwell at Long On.

Blackwell returned at the other end, and despite Coddington finding the boundary from a couple of balls did not lose his way, soon finding the edge of Wilcox's bat with wicketkeeper Quinn taking the catch.

Priest continued, wrapping things up in style with wickets of Crossland and Curtis to leave him with fine figures of 5/0/12/5 and leaving Coddington all out for a difficult to defend 68.

Regular openers Darron Hall and Neil Eggleston took to the field confident of an early victory. The unpredictable bounce of the Quarry track however seemed to curse both side as the opening par struggled to get the ball away. Just as a partnership began to emerge, Eggleston found himself caught LBW to the bowling of Smith for an uncharacteristic 7.

Pete Quinn was next to the crease, looking to improve on what had thus far been a fairly miserable season with the bat. Pete and Darron soon developed a partnership which saw a regular flow of ones and two's to keep the score ticking along nicely.

With the end in sight, and a valuable "not out" on the cards for Quinn both batsmen began to relax. it was not to be however as Perrett found the edge of Quinn's bat, only for the Coddington wicketkeeper to take a great catch stood up to the stumps.

Glenn Longden came in next with little to do as MPCC were almost home. Darron and Glenn successfully chipped off the remaining runs with ease giving MPCC a well deserved 8 wicket victory.

All in all an excellent performance against an admittedly weaker Coddington XI. With regular bowlers Gabbitas, Davies and Costello all missing it was satisfying to see other players step up to the mark with success which just goes to show the depth of the squad in terms of bowling.

As always, a number of candidates made compelling cases for the man of the match award, notably Rem Fiorini for a fine fielding display and Glenn Longden for some great bowling. However, with a 5 wicket haul on debut, the man of the match award goes to a deserving Dave Priest.