Winning Start for Glenpark XI
Glenpark XI v Motherwell
The Glenpark XI started their 2010 campaign with an emphatic win on a glorious Saturday.
Bowling first, Glenpark openers Dave Sharma and Chris Bellwood kept things tight before Sharma had to retire early due to the regular pulled muscle experienced at his age! Jonathan Hempsey kept up the good work and the pressure led to wickets beginning to fall. The hosts had plenty of bowling options and short spells seemed to work well with Sam Sanghera routing out the middle order.
The fielding was a mixed batch, with some catches going down, but there was support for the bowlers with some Karbonn Kamal catches from Jonathan Hempsey, Greg McDougall and Chris Bellwood. They certainly showed better judgement than when Mark Robertson took a return throw from the boundary and used a rather sensitive part of his body to stop the ball. He was shown great sympathy from his teammates – once they had picked themselves up from the floor! He may be fielding in a box in the future. Keay and Krishna showed resistance, but eventually Motherwell succumbed in the 42nd over with Stuart Anderson quickly removing the tail. Glenpark went to tea happy with their first half performance – even Tony Judd had some words of praise…amongst others!
It was quickly clear that Motherwell’s bowling lacked penetration. Chris Hempsey and Mark Robertson were adept at putting away the bad deliveries and got off to a flying start, which never really slowed down. It was good to see the openers timing the ball so well early in the season and, after a slow motion stumping removed Robertson, Chris Bellwood continued in the same vein. Glenpark passed their target with 35 overs to spare with a performance that should raise hopes of promotion, but it must be borne in mind that there will be weaker squads fielded against stronger opposition this season.
Motherwell (4 pts) 153ao (42 overs) SS Sanghera 3 for 30, SL Anderson 2 for 9, MI Robertson 2 for 18
Glenpark XI (25 pts) 156 for 1 (23 overs) CJK Hempsey 75*, C Bellwood 31*, MI Robertson 29
Glenpark XI won by 9 wickets
Glenpark XI Man of the Match: Chris Hempsey
Scooby Award: Chris Bellwood – in truth there were more worthy winners but Chris was chosen, for the relatively minor infringement of raising his bat thinking he was being applauded for his 50, by virtue of being a debutante.
'The Snake'
