Park Cruise to an Erith Double

Bill & Craig Partridge opened the bowling for Park and found the Erith openers difficult to shift, but kept the runs under control. Bill got his reward when he bowled the dangerous Colwell to break the opening partnership with the score on 56. Digger Barnes came into the attack and trapped Brenner LBW with no further runs added. This brought the run rate down further and by the time Digger had bowled Benn, Erith were 82 for 3 off 23 overs. Christian O'Mahoney's spellbrought the wicket of skipper Leaver, bowled, to have the oppo on 104 for 4. With Dave Fletcher now turning his arm over the wickets started to come in regular intervals. First, Sharma caught by Digger, 140 for 5. Fletch and Digger repeated the trick a couple of balls later, 145 for 6. Next into the action was Hearnie catching Mason, once again off Fletcher, 155 for 7. Barnes came back into the bowling attack and struck immediately bowling Raman, Erith now 159 for 8. Fletch wasn't finished yet and had Mo Khan sharply caught by Craig Partridge, 171 for 9. Digger finished things off by bowling Jacobs to leave Erith 177 All Out and Park claiming an extra over for batting.

With Dave Hearn and Bob Harbert opening the batting, the left hand, right hand combination seemed to do the trick as these two got us off to a safe and steady start. Good running was the order of the day to keep the scoreboard ticking over against very tight Erith bowling, particularly from the excellent Khan. When Bob cut into the offside to be caught by Leaver, he had made a quality 24 and Park were 50 for 1. Christian O'Mahoney was in at no.3 and although he didn't fire on all cylinders, being bowled for 9, he made a good thirty partnership with Hearnie. Simon Ewin entered the fray at 81 for 2 in the 21st over and joined Hearnie in a match winning partnership. Mixing good defence with some excellent square cuts Simon upped his tempo to match Dave Hearns typically powerful shots. Hearnie soon reached his 50 with a crashing boundary, to the cheers of the Park faithful. These two batted very responsibly to see the game out for Park, always staying ahead of the run rate and never looking in trouble. The target of 178 was eventually reached after 44.4 overs, with Simon finishing with a quality 37 not out and Hearnie unbeaten and bang on form with a brilliant 87 to claim maximum points for Prospect Park.

An excellent team performance saw Park do the double on a very strong Erith side. Good opening bowling from Bill and Craig Partridge kept the run rate down and then superb spells from Digger Barnes and Dave Fletcher with 4 wickets apiece. Top batting from Bob Harbert and Simon Ewin keeping Dave Hearn company at the top of the order, but its the big fella who takes the MOm this week with a brilliant 87 not out, carrying his bat thru the innings, nice one Hearnie.