On Saturday 11th July we played our first friendly of this shortened season under the ECB's stage 4 of return to recreational cricket. We were kindly hosted by The Perse School in a game vs Cambridge CC (Granta). A mixed 1st and 2nd team held their own against strong opposition but ended up going down by around 10 runs. It was great to see players and supporters again after such a long time off and there were definitely some sore bodies on Sunday morning!

The following week the 1st XI got their league campaign underway away at Warboys vs newly promoted St Ives & Warboys CC. Division 1 is now an 8 team league with everyone playing each other once, followed by a play-off for the top 4. Put in to bat on a tricky pitch Foxton mustered 169-9 off their 40 overs which was probably just about par on the day. In reply St Ives also had difficultly getting the ball away and at one point were 74-6 thanks to some tight bowling, wickets being shared around. Unfortunately some early season catching (dropping) allowed St Ives to get up to 15 to win off the last over but thankfully we held our nerve and ran out winners by 6 runs. Good to get the win but lots of work required in the next few week.

On Sunday a mixed friendly team captained by newly appointed second team captain, Steve Atherton, traveled to Saffron Walden. Batting first we posted 156-9 which was probably 30 runs under par as only a couple of batters got themselves in against some tight Walden bowling. In response Saffron Walden chased the total down for the loss of 6 wickets with 4 overs to spare. Despite the loss there were some encouraging performances and it was good to dust off the cobwebs against decent opposition.

We now look forward to a full weekend of league and cup fixtures this coming weekend!

#upthefox