The firsts bowed out of the National Knockout with the negatives just outweighing the positives in a decent contest on the coast at Formby.
After losing Jack Stanley early doors, Zach, Caleb and Sam raced along to 87-2 in just 13 overs before Caleb mistimed a pull shot and was caught. Sam continued Saturday's form, playing shots all around the wicket in a partnership of 58 with Ben Hamilton but when both were out within the space of two overs, there was 145 on the board with 13 overs still to go.
Instead of rebuilding, the middle order then tried to smash every ball into the sea and it just wasn't going to happen with the next three wickets falling for eleven. This meant that Ollie, Fin and debutant Owen, could not play freely and had to take their ones and twos to use up the overs, when that is precisely what those middle order batsman should have been doing. As it transpired, they did that job extremely well, batting with maturity and managing to take the game to the last over whilst adding 37 valuable runs.
The final total of 193 was lightweight however, when a more disciplined approach could and should have set a target in excess of 220.
Formby's reply started with their openers struggling a bit and playing and missing on a regular basis. As they began to look more assured, an umpiring decision and a farcical dropped catch took the game away and despite a great spell of 1-22 off Ben Hamilton's eight over spell, the batsmen gradually took charge and eased their way to land Sam's men with a second seven wicket defeat within the space of two days.
Once again, there were positives in the performance, but there was also some poor cricket on display which needs to be ironed out before the season slips away.