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Choudry makes the difference

Kirkwood arrived early for a prompt start at sunny Ulgham. Rowlands batted first thanks to Alans dubious skills with the coin and he opened with Matt. The pair put on 23 for the first wicket when Alan on 8 (one 4) and going well surrendered to first slip. Matt punctuated his cautious, responsible approach with classy boundary 4s and scored four of these before leaving one that came back. Man of the Match Colin Tait and Ian Younger then batted through to belie fears of a full scale collapse with an array of bats being twidled near the pavilion. Colin scored 48 not out with seven 4s and a lost ball huge 6 over mid on. Ian gained momentum with 27 not out (three 4s). Rowlands thus made 127-2 against a very varied attack of seven bowlers with 20 wides being contributed to the score!

Kirkwood's reply was based around Shobir Choudry's 61. Robbie Burns and Keith Clark had little early joy as Kirkwood got off to a rapid start. Keith 2-0-21-0 was replaced by Ian Younger who became the man to take the wickets. His three cost 36 runs in a useful 4 over spell with two lbws and a clean bowled. Robbie bowled his third over and was replaced by Don. Still Choudry kept finding the boundary and the score mounted. After 3 overs Don was switched to the other end to allow two overs from Gary Hall. Don's first ball from the 'good end' brought Choudry forward and he was beaten and stumped by the ever alert Gowla. Don's finishing with 4-0-16-1 and Kirkwood needed 20 from the last 2 overs. Gary went for a few too many with 2-0-22-0 and Robbie had the difficult task to concede only 5 off his last over. The middle order batsmen completed their task with three balls to spare and Rowlands lost by 6 wickets. Robbie bowled 3.5-0-35-0 with too many wides. Rowlands 3 points, Kirkwood 7 from a good spirited game.