Farningham welcomed Southborough 1st XI to Horton Way on a perfect Saturday to start the 2016 season.
Farningham won the toss and elected to bat first, a decision at the half way stage that looked to be a very good one.
The innings started well for Farningham with openers Paul Bensley(46) and Hadleigh Wiles(35) establishing a strong base for number 3 batsmen Reese Thwaites (100) to produce a faultless knock to reach his maiden century for Farningham, Reese remained focussed with George Hutchins (35) following a mini collapse with 3 quick wickets from Southborough before being well caught on the boundary.
Marcus Kieth 5-0-35-2 and Imran Jameel 8-0-32-1 the pick of the bowlers for Southborough.
Farningham ended up posting 264-8 in their 40 overs
The reply from Southborough started well with openers Kevin Mathews(31) and James Brown(58) but wickets fell at regular intervals following changes in the bowling attack, halting the progress of the Southborough chase with 3 wickets a piece from Mark Collier, Hadleigh Wiles and Tom Hull. Haleigh and Adam England taking 3 catches each backing up the bowlers well. Useful knocks from Steve Smith(37) and Rob Hood(47) almost provided the grandstand finish but they just couldn’t quite close in on the required total with the latter the final wicket to fall just 20 runs short in the 39th over. A great game to start off the 2016 season
Southborough closed on 244 all out in 38.2 overs