Lightning lose to Merrow in Thriller

Team Lightning travelled to Merrow on Sunday in what proved to be the best match of the season played to date. Bowling first, Merrow were restricted to a net score of 270 in what was an excellent bowling and fielding display – only 9 wides were bowled, a record low! Stan Brading (3-0-9-1), Barty Little (3-1-8-0) and Henry Pearce bowled with great accuracy, Harry Hastie and William Martin both picked up wickets, while Oscar Pilling ended with the best figures of 3-1-11-3 and Rupert Butler kept wicket superbly. In reply Cranleigh started brightly with debutant Will Hamblin and William Martin putting on 31 for the first wicket. But due to some very accurate bowling from Merrow the runs started to dry up and wickets fell at regular intervals, and despite some late hitting from Oscar Pilling (18) we just couldn’t get over the winning line. The match was so close and could have gone either way – luckily we don’t have to wait long for a re-match as the two teams face each other once again on Wednesday night on the Common.