On officially the first “proper” day of summer, a youthful Fantasians side faced the Royal Armoured Core at Iwerne Minster. After some waiting (all Fants players were on time), the match began and we were put into bat. With some luck we had a team of specialist batsmen throughout the order. George Wissett-Warner and George Ledger opened the batting and did well to start the scoreboard off. George WW exhibited some masterful stroke play before retiring on 105 and Ollie Lintott did well on a sprained ankle to hit 45. There were surely some nerves in the RAC camp when looking at the scoreboard to see that we were 170-1 (rather better than the England score I might add). The middle order wore through the quick bowlers overs extremely well with the Wilson brothers and Stephen Blake batting well.

Towards the end of the innings, the RAC rather ran out of bowlers and after a change of wicket keeper for the last few overs, the obligatory “donkey droppers” came on to bowl allowing messrs Vere-Nicoll and Hope (who seem to be rather a regular pairing) to add 47 runs in the last 2 and a half overs. The Fantasians batted extremely well to finish the innings on 274 – 9.

Having assembled a strong batting line up, I was rather hoping that some could also bowl and I was not disappointed! Roly Ingleby-Mackenzie opened the bowling up the hill, unleashing some daemon late swingers in that “corridor of uncertainty”. Guy Vere-Nicoll opened also and due to his fitness issues was forced to bowl downhill…. to great effect I might add. Their opening batsmen were under pressure from the off, with chances in the air and some close LBW calls. After some missed chances, ball started going to hand, and staying in it and wickets began to fall. The Ledger brothers bowled extremely well taking wickets from either end and since it seemed like his day, George Wissett-Warner took a couple bowling some well flighted spin from the far end. Having not been so impressed with his keeping, Jamie Hope had a few overs and made up for his many wides by removing a middle stump and luckily took a 2nd through a Jonty Rhodes esque catch by Stephen Blake at mid on.

After a fantastic day at Iwerne Minster, the Fantasians took the final wicket with the RAC requiring 155 runs to win – so a great victory and a big thank you to everybody that played. Also a big thank you to Mary Ledger, Lesley Wright and Lucy Lintott for a delicious tea.

Team Sheet: George Wissett-Warner, George Ledger, Ollie Lintott, Archie Wilson, Stephen Blake, Henry Wilson, Tom Ledger, Guy Vere Nicoll, Roly Ingleby-Mackenzie, Jamie Hope