Haverhill 2nd Eleven started life in Division 6 of the Two Counties League with a home match against Bury St Edmunds 3rd’s . On a warm sunny day the Visitors won the toss and invited Haverhill to bat first . Young Sam Hartshorn  and the experienced Phil Jones opened the innings for the Home side and after a sticky , cautious start both played some great shots in an opening partnership of 96 runs before the tiring Jones was bowled for a well made 37. Hartshorn went on to make 50 before he too departed with the score still at 96 .

  Greg Street (34) was joined by Carl Bradford (9) who put on another 40 runs before Bradford was out . An exciting knock of 38 by Jason Ketteridge soon got the scoreboard ticking again and a big score looked likely . But a mini-collapse of Street , Rinaldi (2) and then Ketteridge left the tail with some work to do as at 198-6 the innings was in the balance . Joey Kettle stepped up to play a very mature knock of 45 not out in partnership with Jon Watkins (5) and David Saville ( 8 not out ) to take the home team to a final score of 259-7 .

 Although this was a very competitive score Bury had scored 250 odd the previous week so could chase this score down . An early wicket for a nervous David Saville calmed his nerves as the dangerous P. Thearle departed for 2 and this brought Skipper Dobson to the crease to join Youngster Adams . As Skipper Martyn Wilkins kept things tight at the Pavilion End  the two Batsman batted conservatively as the run rate increased . With the introduction of the change Bowlers Dobson changed gear and played some aggressive strokes and peppered the boundary as the score climbed to 120-1 before that man Kettle got the breakthrough having Dobson caught by Watkins for a hard hit 72 .

 After his departure the scoring rate dropped and Haverhill got back a bit of control . Joey Kettle bowled very well in a very important part of the match to wrestle the match back with figures of 7-2-25-1 and push his Man-of-the Match claims further . Dan Webb twirled away for 12 overs to take 2-64 and Skipper Wilkins returned at the end to finish with 14 overs , 5 maidens , 2 wickets for 42 runs . Young Toby Adams batted right through the Bury Innings for 99 not out and showed admiral composure and looks good for the future as Bury finished on 213-6 and a win for Haverhill by 46 runs .

  In conclusion the batting looks strong but our fielding and bowling will sharpen up as we play more matches but if anyone knows of an unemployed strike Bowler let me know !

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