Fred Perry, Tess Daly, Phil Foden and Georgians; all from Stockport. Last season's two defeats still rankled and at the start of this season, beating them twice was a KPI. Perhaps the difference between winning the league or not. Sitting 3rd but needing some miraculously unlikely results by Didsbury, every game is seen as one that can be won. With availability (say it quietly) really good this week, there were some selection headaches. The side that took the field had plenty of experience with a sparkle of first team quality.
Dan won the toss and put Stockport in. It was a good pitch and lines and lengths needed to be found. Archie settled in to a classic 7 overs for 19 spell and got the breakthrough courtesy of a sharp catch at mind-on...cheers Dad. Wiggy at the other end was bowling quickly. Too quickly for the Georgians top order who seemed ill-equipped to cope. One hit on the head before they had chance to move, another failed to get the bat there quick enough and bowled and a mistimed pull straight up in the air and grabbed by Reg. Excellent stuff. With Wiggy firing in, Archie was targeted and consecutive catchable chances went down. Spells over and Conrad looked to recreate his Widnes form with Oliver at the other end. A flurry of boundaries kick-started the scoring before smart catches by Josh and Wiggy got the youngsters a wicket each.
Again spells over, Dan and Fishy came on to try and take the last 5. They did along with an excellent run out from Josh. More good catches from Joe Killoran (twice) and a sharp stumping from Reg did for Stockport. 155 probably 50 or 60 light on a wicket which did very little.
Josh and Dom opened up. Some self critical sledging from the opposition and the odd sheep impression. Odd. Josh went for 17 but Dom settled in the same gear as he had against Timperley where he was unbeaten. A couple of beautiful drives early but essentially good defence. Oliver T at 3 and needing to score the runs he is clearly capable of. He batted brilliantly scoring all round the ground. He punished anything short in his innings of 41 - more to come, definitely. Oli's departure let Reg lose. A quality ball striker who can dominate 2s games and that's what he did. It was almost as if he felt the bowling wasn't good enough and dismissed it from his presence. 37 runs from 26 balls including a couple of towering 6s to win the game well inside 40 overs. Dom not out on and the second (this time unbroken) partnership of over 50.
A comfortable win and Stockport now looking likely to drop ack down to division 1.
A good day's work in the August sun. And everyone enjoyed their afternoon.

MotM - Dom pipped Oliver and Reg for his unbeaten innings.
DotD - Conrad (bizarrely) for overthinking his run up.