Ely rue missed opportunities

CCA Senior Division Two

Ely/Haddenham 225-8 Newton 229-1

Newton won by nine wickets

ILL fortune cost Ely as they fell to their second straight defeat, according to club vice-captain Mark Abbott.

"The luck went against us," said Abbott, who saw his team comprehensively beaten in their second outing in as may weeks.

"There were a couple of half-chances which we didn't take, and they played some shots in the air which didn't go to our fielders.

"It was an improved performance on the previous week but we are just not getting the luck.

Ely got off to a fine start, with Kevin Wells hitting 77 as opener and Mike Grady weighing in with 28. The pair were well-supported by Mark Hatcher, who contributed 39 coming in at number three.

Thereafter, however, wickets fell at regular intervals as no batsman further down the order could impose himself on the innings.

John Peacock followed up a fine knock of 48 last week with an innings which yielded 17 on Saturday, but the rest of Ely's order struggled.

The real difficulty, though, came with the ball as Ely one took one wicket before Newton chased down the target. Abbott continued: "We do miss a really quick opening bowler, but there are many of them around.

"We do have Ben Travers and Mark Deas, who are top, top bowlers, but they just need that bit of luck.

"Everyone on the team is capable of scoring runs and taking wickets - everyone - but we just haven't clicked yet."

The fact that Grady took the only wicket to fall during 29 overs of bowling is a guide to Ely's problems, but Newton's strong batting order of Newman (89), Prentice (59) and Austin (56) must take some credit.

"I've never played them before and we didn't really test them," said Abbott. "Hopefully, after the next match, I'll be talking about a win."

On Saturday, Ely travel to Yelling for a league clash.