West v East – East won by 1 wicket
On a bright sunny day at Whitchurch, the west won the toss and batted. Pope and Staddon got off to a steady start which ended at 12 when Pope was bowled by Steward. Stevenson coming in at three then embarked on an innings that was to be his sides highest, he scored 39 with some excellent stroke play. With Staddon (16) he put on 45 for the second wicket when on the brink of drinks Staddon became Stewards second victim. The home side continued to accumulate runs with Scaglioni (28) increasing the tempo timing the ball sweetly when Stevenson fell at 99. With Alam now at the crease the scoring rate improved further and he completed a rapid 23 off 19 balls. He fell to the off spin of Folland who took two quick wickets. The West scored 89 off their last 15 scores taking their tally up to 179-7. The best bowling performances from the East was achieved by Seward 7-3-10-2 and Folland 6-1-22-2.
The West’s inform bowler Jordan Hancock took two early wickets with tight accurate bowling and after the first 16 overs the East were 47-4 with the home side in command. Their opponents had other ideas as Biggs (20) and Richardson occupied the crease putting on an invaluable 50. The West bowlers lost control bowling wide after wide (extras 90) and the score started to mount. The removal of Biggs and Richardson left the East at 109-7 with 11 overs to go gave hope to the home side who still felt they could win the game. This confidence ebbed when Greenberry took on his opponents scoring a swift 25 including a six off Alam. The pressure was too much for the West resulting in them bowling wider and wider with the exception of Hancock who continued to bowl well, he took a wicket and the East were 158-9 requiring 13 off the last over with an injured Steward at the crease and hardly able to run. He managed to get the strike with his side needing 11 off 3. First ball he struck a brilliant four down the ground, next ball resorted to the agriculture over mid wicket, he now needed three off the last ball. The West decided to bowl a full toss and Steward deposited over the mid wicket boundary. An outstanding game with the East deserving winners, assisted in part by Mr Extras and an appropriate end to the 2006 Inter District programme.
South v North – North won by 26 runs
The North came out the winners of this very competitive game where the ball dominated the bat on a lively pitch with some unpredictable bounce. Of the twenty wickets that fell fourteen were clean bowled with 218 runs being scored off 52.1 overs. Disappointingly 104 of those runs were extras. The South’s decision to insert the North was immediately fruitful when Grainger-Allen bowled the dangerous Craig Overton with the first ball of the match. Wickets continued to fall cheaply before Lockhead (20) and Jamie Overton (34) came together to put on an aggressive 62 for the fifth wicket which ultimately won the game. The tail did not wag and the North was dismissed for 122 which would be a challenging total in the conditions but not out of the South’s reach. The leading home side bowlers were Eaves 4-23 off 8 and Drake 2-12 off 4 and they had been assisted by a generally competent fielding performance with McKenna taking two quality catches at short cover.
The South now had ample overs to score their runs but were never quite able to occupy the crease long enough to place their opponents on the back foot but twice first on 42-2 and later on 84-6 the result was in the balance. The visitors pace attack wrapped up the tail extremely efficiently and the South were all out for 96. Eaves followed up his four wickets by also top scoring with 20 and was the South’s Man of the Match. McKenna had played some quality shots in his innings. The North’s award went to Max Curtis for his fine spell of 2 for 9 off his four overs but Jamie Overton took 3-16 off five, his twin Craig 2-19 off five and Stone 2-9 off three also put in strong bowling performances.