On Saturday, the Optimists travelled to Ohain where they played the Royal Brussels Cricket Club in a 40 over a side friendly fixture.
Skipper, Richard Neale won the toss and elected to bat first on the newly prepared Notts Sports track that RBCC have inserted in preparation for the International competition that is to be hosted at their ground later this season.
Tim Andrews and debutant Tim Barker opened the batting and both looked in good touch. Although riding their luck a bit, they were scoring at a good rate until Andrews played a slightly lazy shot and was out caught. The wickets of Suresh Kalagara and young Tim Barker who hit some fine shots for a deserved 30 quickly followed and this left the Optimists on 51-0 to suddenly 51-3 off 16 overs!
Richard Neale and Graham Cope set about rebuilding the innings against a very measured RBCC bowling attack that also saw Zimbabwean opening fast bowler, Brighton Watambwa bowl a few overs to test the nerves. Cope batted magnificently with some powerful shots played all-round the ground until he was eventually bowled for 49. Neale continued to score runs until he was run out for a deserved 77.
Burleigh came in and hit a mighty blow for his first ball that sailed over the rope for 6 runs and was supported well by Sebastian Finch and Mike West who all made a valuable contribution at the end of the innings. A respectable 203 was posted, but with the RBCC having a strong batting line-up…was this to be enough?
Pandian Rathinavel opened the bowling with Phil Burleigh. Pandian bowled brilliantly and showed real pace and accuracy. He dismissed both openers and ended with 4-27. Suresh Kalagara came on and immediately dismissed the dangerous Brighton Watambwa, clean bowled! However, the really encouraging sight was an outstanding display of leg spin bowling from James Barker. His figures of 2-28 only tell half the story. RBCC had Shahab who was batting brilliantly and although scored a 50, J.Barker had him completely buttoned down as he bowled with metronomic consistency and a lot of turn. At the other end was Mike West who also bowled well and battled hard against an inform Shahab but when West clean bowling the last batsman, Bilal it was a fine victory for the visiting Optimists side.
It was an excellent bowling performance from all with wickets falling at a regular intervals and the fielding was as always, good and not quite so good! Special mention has to go to Graham Cope who standing at first slip was left to catch an enormous, swirling top edge skier, which after running around in a few circles he did so with ease! It was a great day with some notable performances.
William Cope who kept wicket, along with the two other junior debutants, James and Tim Barker all played very well and we look forward to them playing more Senior Cricket.
Optimists CC – 203-6 (Neale 77, G.Cope 49)
RBCC – 157 allout (Rathinavel 4-27, J.Barker 2-28)
Optimists win by 47 runs
Picture: James Barker