With captain Bielby away on his Holidays, vice-captain Shofiq took over as captain and on a cloudy wet day, Grace's lost the toss and were put into bat, McGing opening the batting with Camberwell.
Whilst difficult to score on a wet wicket, Beddington's bowling was accurate and miserly. It took Page in his final innings for the club to crack an impressive 73, unusually slow by his standards, but absolutely vital for our batters to set a good target. Last year we squashed Beddington out of sight, but this year it was going to be tough. Grace's scored 170–6, with Henderson not out on 8, Rishafi clubbing 38 and Hardisty doing his best for 14.
In reply after tea (which had been covered by one of the Sunday national newspapers - honest!), Grace's bowled their hearts out. Shofiq bowled 20 overs on the trot with Fawaz and Rishafi providing strong support. However Beddington were a great deal more impressive than their team from last year and it was clear that they had put out a much stronger side this year. It must be said, although we don’t want to use this as an excuse, Grace's were down to eight men in the field and it was impossible to play and to field as we would have liked. It must also be said that Shofiq's stint was breathtaking. He bowled tremendously. Fawaz probably bowled the best ball of the day to take the first wicket, a lovely slower delivery, demonstrating that variety in your bowling methods can trick the batsmen and produce great results. Grace's lost by 4 wickets, but a great performance.
Well played all those who turned up, and fantastically played Page. We will miss you more than you will ever know. A fantastic performance and sadly missed already.