On a hot day the Park Captain had no hesitation on winning the toss and electing to bat on what looked like a good deck for batting and a fast outfield.

With the score at something like 10 for 2 with early strikes from Phadake and Vaughan-Hawkins he might have questioned his decision and expected some more circumspect batting. However, 'bazball' is still alive and kicking in Chester and the Parkites 'saw ball and hit ball' to escape their difficulties. From 3 to 9 they all gave the ball a spank to reach 247 for 7 off their allocation with Singh top scoring with 60 at number 6. Had Timperley held their chances they might have only had 200 or so to chase - we will never know. The most successful bowler was Phadake with 3 for 53 off 9.

With the outfield offering good value for shots Timperley tried to play a patient game and await some loose stuff from the Park bowlers to attack. It was undoubtedly there but not in sufficient quantity to allow the innings to develop momentum. Martin batted well up top for 47, supported by Coad with 28 and Reddy with 19 but nobody could press on to make a match winning contribution. Park greatly helped themselves by a solid catching performance throughout the Timperley innings. In the end Timperley finished on 180 for 8 to lose by 67 runs. The best of the Park bowling was from Gunakala with 3 for 22, supported by the economy of Razdan who only went for 21 off his 10 over spell.

Fingers crossed for better things next week.