Twenty runs short... the story of our season

As you can probably gather from the heading, we lost, this time to Shropshire Health Authority - and again it was our batting that let us down.

Skipper Justin Evans summed things up when he said: "Twenty runs short - that's the story of our season." On this occasion we bowled first against a strong SHA side on a pudding of a pitch at Whittington that offered plenty in the way of variable bounce.

We started off pretty well. I opened the bowling and despite figures of 0-12 off my two overs, I wasn't too unhappy with my performance as one of the two boundaries I conceded was very nearly caught at slip by a stretching Dave Ryder.

With Gareth Cole also opening the bowling, we kept the scoring rate down before Geraint Jones removed one of the opening pair and Matt Daulby weighed in with two wickets courtesy of brilliant catches at point from Justin - the first of which he managed to juggle first before hanging on. Rory Jones again produced a quick spell which helped keep a lid on the scoring rate.

The visitors reached 53 at the halfway point of their innings and, with Brian Cole bowling superbly - and picking up a wicket - we managed to restrict them to 101 off their 20 overs. Credit should be given to Dave Ryder, who bowled the final over, kept it tight and picked up a wicket despite having an achilles injury.

Our reply got off to a fine start, with father and son Brian and Gareth reaching 30 without loss off five overs, before Brian was given out lbw in what looked a pretty harsh decision. Gareth moved to 18 before getting out and North West Water's mid-order collapse had begun.

Matt Daulby departed for six while Justin, after playing a few meaty blows, was bowled by one that kept very low. We were still in at after 10 overs - 43 for four - but the regular loss of wickets meant we fell well behind the asking rate as the innings progressed.

I went in at number seven but we continued to lose wickets and ended on 85 for nine, 17 runs short of victory. It was disappointing and I was frustrated with my batting again, failing to hit a boundary despite my best endeavours (I fininshed on 11no). Ultimately, we needed a few big blows in the closes stages which I just couldn't provide.

Anyway, we'll be looking to get back to winning ways against Cae Glas next week. Hopefully we won't end up 20 runs short...