After a first defeat of the season followed by last week’s washout, Hawkesbury 1st XI travelled to Tetbury looking to get back to winning ways. On a surface that looked to offer some assistance to the bowlers captain Jay Westwood elected to bowl first, a decision which paid off with Mike Colburn (8-2-36-2) claiming an early wicket. At the other end Rory Thomas (9-0-31-0) bowled excellently but with no luck, as Tetbury looked to establish a solid platform. However, with the introduction of Sam Beeley (9-1-23-1) and Westwood (6-2-10-1), Hawkesbury began to stifle the run rate and a steady stream of wickets ensued. Tetbury fought back at the death and some lusty blows from the lower order saw them up to a challenging looking total of 162/8 off 45 overs.

In reply Hawkesbury made a shaky start, falling from 37/0 to 55/4 with Tetbury opener Evans claiming all four scalps. This was later to become 110/7, however with wickets tumbling and victory looking increasingly improbable Jay Westwood held firm. With run rate never seemingly an issue he played a true captain’s knock, blunting the Tetbury attack and accumulating runs without risk to finish unbeaten on 60. At the other end the experienced Mike Colburn (23*) provided fine support and Hawkesbury were able to get over the line in the 39th over, claiming a well fought 3 wicket win against tough opposition. A strong all round team performance which hopefully can be carried forward to next week, where Rockhampton are the visitors to the John Hawkins Ground in a second vs third in the table clash.