2’s last minute fixture proves valuable

Falkland 2’s made a last minute trip to Purley on Saturday and ran out comfortable winners by 68 runs.
Batting first Falkland recovered from the early loss of Jim Ettridge (8) as Craig Williams and Anthony Hennis added 72 before Hennis was caught for a fluent 36. Peter Borton added a further 42 with Williams until he fell to a brilliant catch at slip for 12. Williams retired on an unbeaten 50* with his side 135-3 from 32 overs and looking to post a good score. The mid-lower order failed to capitalise and wickets fell regularly, four of them to Clarke who finished with 4-17 as Falkland were bowled out for 183 from 40 overs.
Kiwi overseas quick Mark Otley took the new ball and was immediately impressive, his pace and movement proving a real test for the Purley openers on what was a slow deck. Left arm quick Ben Armstrong soon made inroads as he nailed Priestly and Harlowe and when the spin of Mubiru Trevor took out Purley skipper Pat Allen for 1, the visitors were soon in the ascendency. The left arm spin of Peter Borton then took centre stage as he ripped through the Purley middle order and it was fitting that he wrapped things up by clean bowling the last man Wellstead to finish with impressive figures of 6-30 from his spell as Purley were all out for 115.
It was a really encouraging run out with several new faces playing starring roles which augurs well for the League campaign which kicks off next week at Peppard.

By Duncan Johnson, FCC 2nd XI Captain