With bellies fully stuffed from a combination of Friday night’s Lebanese and a second helping of breakfast at the Boston Tea Party, the Nutters touring party were ready to board the bus and head to Saturday’s fixture at Sarisbury in Hampshire.

The group was joined for the day by the sorely missed Jeff Mckenna who was visiting various parts of the UK with his family. The ground was roughly an hour’s drive from Salisbury and a few members of the team used the drive down to have a snooze on the bus in preparation for another day of Cricket.

The ground itself featured very short square boundaries and with a relatively flat track, the Nuthurst batting line up was not too upset to have been inserted. The Sarisbury XI contained several young colts in their team and they all were keen to have a bowl. Club Captain Bob Samways had a very long sessions of throw downs in the attempt to rediscover some form. He strode out to the middle full of purpose, accompanied by skipper for the day Jonty Greenwood. The opposition were given the services of James Simpson, who had bowled so beautifully against Bishops Cannings the day before and Samways battled hard to see James off. Despite James bowling well the pair started quickly, hitting plenty of square boundaries and running well between the wickets. However in Simpson’s final over he roughed Jonty up with a short delivery and the next delivery was promptly left, only to crash into Jontys middle stump.

So with Keith out for 25 and 5 from Graham Prior, Jeff made his way out to join Bob at the crease. The first shot reminded Nuthurst of what they are missing, along with a ferociously hit boundary the following over. Tragedy struck not long after, with Jeff unfortunately pulling his calf and hitting the deck midway through running a single, spelling the end of his cameo tour appearance. Olly Prior was unlucky to have been yorked by talented youngster E. Shanley, who bowled his out-swing with great control and enthusiasm. Stuart Catterall was next in and together with the increasingly assured Samways, the pair batted the overs and hit the bad balls away with placement for the next hour. The partnership of 109 is Stuart’s first 100 partnership and his eventual score of 34 is his highest for the club.

Bob brought up his hundred with one of his many singles through the off-side, a memorable innings and one that should hopefully be the start of a long run of scores. The Nuthurst total finished on exactly 200 for the loss of 6 wickets in their 35 overs - an imposing total.
Jonny Willis and Gwyllim Jones were the men chosen to open the bowling. Willis bowled opener Slatter for 1 and his opening partner Tatlock was superbly caught on the boundary by that man Samways off Gwyllim’s bowling. James Simpson was asked to bat 3 for Sarisbury and he did so with great patience as N Abbott took an aggressive approach at 4. He scored a counter attacking 39 with some hard-swinging shots, but eventually Graham Prior got his reward and had Abbott caught by Willis. After the dismissal of Whitt for a duck, there followed a period of play of great sportsmanship by the Nuthurst side. The Sarisbury colts batted in partnership with James Simpson, who handed strike over to the youngsters, who were then encouraged to play their shots. Extraordinarily, or maybe not given the fact that the nutters were getting tired by that point, 8 dropped catches went down over the course of the rest of the innings as the Sarisbury youngsters tried valiantly to chase down the nutters total.

The youngsters batted very well and many of their shots were applauded by the fielding side themselves. Eventually a wicket from Catterall and two from DB got the Nutters smelling victory. With the wicket of Simpson for 34 the Nuthurst restricted Sarisbury in the last few overs despite 16 not out from S. Abbott at the end of the innings, with the 35th and final over being bowled by Bob Samways. It featured the almost before seen sight of Bob running in off his long run; featuring 7 slips, 2 gully’s and 2 leg slips (both umpires and the non-strike batsmen decided to field too!!) to try and get the last wicket. Sarisbury closing on 169 for 9 after 35.

Another tour victory and an excellent day out for Bob Samways was followed by a BBQ at Sarisbury’s main ground, where their 1st XI had been playing in the quarter final of the Village Cup. The group was joined by Alex Hurst and after some refreshments, headed back to Salisbury for another excellent meal.

Tour Correspondent & Umpire R.Keen