Farnham CC 1st XI secured a well earned victory in the opening match of their league season on Saturday away at Old Rutlishians.

Due to the persistent rain throughout April and May this was the first outing for new skipper Jim Berry’s men whose pre season matches and first league game were all cancelled.

Berry won the toss and elected to field in cloudy conditions with a wicket that looked to favour the ball. Club stalwart Rob Goldsworthy made short work of the Old Rutlishians overseas player Will Martin bowling him for 0 in the first over with a vicious delivery that nipped back sharply and took the top of middle stump.

This season Farnham have welcomed overseas player Brady Poole from Warrandyte CC near Melbourne, Australia, and it was Poole himself also with the new ball that picked up the second wicket and his first in a Farnham Shirt caught well at cover by Nathan Thorpe.

It was then Goldsworthy’s turn again and he picked up two more quick wickets, another good catch at cover by Thorpe and then an LBW to dismiss number 3 Dan Wallis

The returning Mike O’Mahony was introduced into the attack as first change bowler at Poole’s end and immediately made another breakthrough having Old Rutlishians Wicket Keeper Rob Jones well caught at slip by Guy Hicks.

Goldsworthy and O’Mahony both continued to pick up regular wickets and restrict the Old Rutlishians batting lineup on what was a challenging wicket that the home side showed very little discipline on. Goldsworthy picked up his fifth wicket from the last ball of his spell, once again bowling number 10 Evan Watson and returning superb figures of 10 overs, 3 Maidens, 5 for 16.

It was down to O’Mahony to take the final wicket of Carlton Anand for 2. O’Mahony himself returning fine figures of 7.2 overs, 4 maidens 4 for 12 leaving Old Rutlishians all out for just 61.

Farnham very quickly slumped to 5-3 with the dismissals of opening pair Hicks and Thorpe as well as captain Berry. At serious risk of further collapse Russell Golding joined Tom Flack at the crease and the pair dug deep, initially working hard to dampen the bowling attack and then once settled began rotating the strike well and punishing the bad ball. Golding the aggressor on what was an unrewarding outfield for batters and Flack very much playing the anchor role.

Golding was then unfortunately run out after a mix up with Flack leaving Farnham on 29-4. Tom Grimes and Jamie Strachan were then also dismissed in quick session with Farnham on 37-6.

Brady Poole joined Flack and it was the pair who finally saw Farnham home building a solid partnership with well taken singles, hard running and a couple of boundaries in quick succession the situation was calmed and the total quickly chased down without the loss of any more wickets to the great relief of the Farnham side who take their first victory of the season and 20 points. Flack finishing 22 not out from 115 balls and Poole 13 not out off 33.

After the game skipper Berry was delighted with his team’s bowling performance saying “Rob and Mike’s bowling spells were incredibly impressive after such little pre season practice and they were backed up brilliantly with some good catching in the field’”. Commenting on Farnham’s batting Berry said “It was always going to be a challenging run chase as none of the lads had any match practice coming into the game but the way Tom and Russell applied themselves to take the wind out of Old Rutlishians sails at 5-3 was excellent. Brady’s 13 not out at the end was also incredibly valuable in the context of the game and so it was great to see him get us over the line on his Farnham debut.”

Next week Farnham host newly promoted Cheam CC at Farnham Park.