The vast expanse of Odd Down playing fields is not the most idyllic venue and the wicket, with little time for preparation following the recently ended football season, was very green indeed; but the afternoon started pleasantly warm and there was no wind, and with the boundaries quite short the conditions offered promise for both batsmen and bowlers. We bowled first; their opener slashed hard at Kevin's first ball, and Andrew was unlucky to drop the sharp chance. We then afforded the Star's openers a few loose deliveries which were easily despatched to the boundary at which point Chintan was introduced early into the attack. He and Kevin then embarked on spells of accurate bowling that slowed the scoring rate and kept the pressure on the batsmen. The ball was moving around enough to induce some streaky shots, and finally Kevin made a deserved breakthrough, Andrew atoning for his earlier drop by picking up a looping edge at second slip. The Star proceeded to build a decent second wicket partnership, but just when it seemed that they might increase the run rate, we embarked on a fine period of play. James D bowled a very tidy spell, tempted their batsmen into false shots and took two wickets. Three catches were held in quick succession - Rogers was easy enough, but Liam's was tricky and Andrew's second catch of the day was a superb take of a high, spiralling ball. Chintan returned to complete his overs after an earlier spell, and he thoroughly deserved his two wickets for a sustained spell of tight, skilful bowling; he had conceded only 12 runs in 8 overs and always looked capable of taking a wicket. With the Star now at about 110 for five off 30 overs it looked like we could keep their score down to very gettable 160-odd. Another wicket now and we really would have been on top. Alas, their number six survived after a very uncertain start, whilst their number seven looked very good indeed. These two were able to cut loose in the final few overs, and took the final total to 202, both batsmen unbeaten on 43. We ended the innings slightly disappointed at not having kept the score down, despite some satisfaction at a largely decent bowling and fielding effort.

Duncan, nursing the hamstring that made him unable to bowl, opened along with Roger, taking Liam as his runner. In the first over, having scored 4, Roger fished outside off stump and edged to the wicket keeper, who dropped the straightforward chance. Four overs later, Duncan did exactly the same thing to the same bowler, and was caught. Liam replaced Duncan, and having had a chance to watch the bowlers at close quarters, was soon into his stride, foregoing any notion of defence. After hitting two straight driven fours off good balls, he was then bowled off the next. Chintan came in but did not last long, trapped LBW playing back to a gentle inswinger. Kevin joined Roger and the Venturers finally began to put a partnership together. Whilst they often found it hard to get the ball off the square, one or two scoring shots an over kept the score ticking over. With the ball swinging wildly from one end, the score was also boosted by a spate of wides and byes, as the ball regularly eluded both batsman and wicketkeeper. The sky was darkening and the temperature plummeting by now, so when Kev was bowled, each new batsman had a hard task to play himself in. Roger had started hitting a few boundaries, taking his chance against a straight up and down medium pace bowler; a couple of these hits had just enough weight on them to go for six. He survived a stumping chance and made his fifty, but fell to the leg spinner who finished off the Venturers with 5 wickets. In the gloom, Harjee couldn't get going and despite a few hits from James, the innings ended rather quickly, as if to get the game finished before the threatened rain came down.