A fine sunny day greeted Goodrich 2nd XI on their visit to Garnons. The Lawns ground looked a picture and visiting skipper Pickering had no hesitation in deciding to bat. The opening pair of Phil Ward & Tony Beddard set about the opening attack sending the ball speeding across the immaculate outfield. With Ward falling for 14 Pat Milinczuk joined the party and built a commanding position for Goodrich. Beddard reached a well played 50 but then drove over a full delivery from Ian Coplans. This led to a flurry of wickets as Milinczuk (48) and Howard followed shortly. It was then left to Jon Pickering and Jack Waldiss to take the score to in excess of 200. This was only to occur following a tremendous piece of sportsmanship by Garnon's Captain, Ian Strangward. Having scored only a handful of runs, Pickering played a horrible looking shot, which from the umpires perspective was a certain LBW. With the appeal being upheld it was then withdrawn by Strangwood, who had noted that Pickering had just edged the ball. This reprieve seemed to inspire Pickering who then proceeded to thrash the Garnons bowling all-round the ground until he was finally run out for 60. Jack Waldiss continued to strike powerfully scoring an excellent 47. The Goodrich innings finally closed on an impressive 240 – 6.

The home side's innings started poorly as the Goodrich opening bowlers of Mark Howard (2-22) and Jake Wiseman (1-21) immediately made inroads into the batting assisted by some excellent catching by Waldiss and Wiseman. A partnership between Pearson Gregory (29) & Coplan (22) then started the build a respectable challenge until the Goodrich veterans Neil Price (4-47) and Richard Hope (2-20) halted the home side's progress. A couple of fielding errors and some lusty hitting by Phil Brace (44) brought respectability to the Garnons score. Goodrich were finally frustrated by the last wicket pair of Marcus Emery(29 no) & Matt Strangward (4no) as Garnons closed on 191-9 however, Goodrich's victory by 49 runs was well deserved.

The GB Liner Man of the match was, by unanimous agreement, Garnons skipper Ian Strangward for his exceptional sportsmanship.

For more stories in full please see this week's Ross Gazette.