The day began with Skipper Buckingham losing the toss and the home team electing to bat.

The opener pair of Payne and Swift bowling in their customary manner, not giving much away until Payne 
made the first breakthrough in the seventh over with the score on 12. Things remained under control until 
the second wicket fell, also to Payne, with only 31 on the board. Swift made way for Cordery to come into 
the attack, the score moved along briskly to 81 until a sharp piece of work behind the stumps by Vallis 
(sorry the ball bounced back off his shin onto the stumps) to remove the Alton No.4 off of Cordery’s 
bowling. Cordery then removed the No.5 which was quickly followed by ‘Grizzly’ Adams removing the No.6 and 
then ending the resistance of the No.3 to reduce Alton to 119 for 6 with 10 overs remaining in the innings
 and Rotherwick ITW seemingly on top. Alton’s No.7 started the fightback with this partners No.8 and No.9 
both removed by Swift and finally with No.10 to add 78 in the last 10 overs to post a decent total of 197 
for 8. All four bowlers ended up with two wickets a piece, Payne (2-34) the best with Cordery (2-43), 
Swift (2-55) and Adams (2-62) ably supporting him.

The Rotherwick ITW reply began with a quiet couple of overs then exploded into life as Jonny Orange 
turned up the heat blasting the bowling to all parts. Buckingham was the first to fall with the score on 
38. Vallis joined Orange who continued on his merry way until he was bowled for 36 with the score on 50. 
Three balls later Swift, who had joined Vallis, continued his miserable run by falling without troubling 
the scorers, at 50-3 the innings was precariously balanced. Steve Guye joined Dan Vallis with some serious
rebuilding required. The pair moved the score up to 71 for 3 before Guye fell for 11 caught at slip and 
was quickly followed by Vallis (6). Another mini recovery was launched by Adams and Appleton S. At 95 for 
5 Rotherwick looked up against it, that was quickly re-assessed as Adams (10), Appleton S (14) and Hooper 
(0) fell in rapid succession. This left Appleton P, Cordery and Payne 14 overs to do what they could to 
recover some pride from the day. This they managed to do to some degree, as only Appleton P was lost for 
15 with Cordery (8No) and the belligerent Payne bludgeoning the bowling to all parts in a later flurry of 
shots that didn’t quite get them to 150, closing the innings on 148 for 9. Yet another game where 
Rotherwick held the upper hand and were unable to press home their advantage.