Drayton v Shipdham 31st May 2008

Shipdham 226-7 Drayton 147 After two good wins in succession, Drayton were brought crashing back to earth with a resounding defeat at the hands of Shipdham. Despite Gary Foreman beating the bat several times in his opening spell, Drayton were unable to get the breakthrough, and despite scoring relatively slowly to begin with Shipdham's openers were able to add 142 for the first wicket. It wasn't until the 32nd over that Drayton made the breakthrough when Andy Denny trapped Duffield lbw for 58. For the remaining 13 overs of the innings, wickets continued to fall regularly whilst runs were scored rapidly - the other opening bat, Stagles being bowled by Gary Foreman for 82. Foreman, along with Michael Mario-Ghae and Phil Soanes each picked up two wickets for Drayton.

Drayton's reply needed a solid foundation and it didn't receive one, as all of the top three batsmen were back in the pavilion by the 10th over. Paul Eggett and Stewart Forton set about rebuilding the innings, and the score had reached 50 by the time Eggett despatched a big full toss straight down square legs throat having looked in good touch making 24. As ever Michael Mario-Ghae started playing big shots straight away, and once Forton was unluckily bowled for 17, he was left to play a lone hand. Striking six powerful sixes, Mario-Ghae reached a well deserved first fifty for the club before attempting one big shot too many. Despite some resistance at the end from Gary Foreman and Mike Ridout, Drayton were bowled out 80 runs short of their required target.