Day 1 of the Round 2 clash between Muddies & Atherton 2 saw the Muddies come away with a 41 run lead which will hold them in good stead for next week’s conclusion.  

Atherton won the toss and elected to make the most of the mornings shade by sending the Muddies into the field.  Debutant Fraser Allen immediately made them pay by bowling their captain for a second ball duck and finishing with the impressive figures of 1 for 6 from his three overs.  Bowling from the yacht club end, Liam Clacherty kept the pressure on to finish with figures of 2 for 12 from his four overs.  When first change bowler Ryan Doble had Atherton’s first drop batsmen caught behind for 1 the Muddies were starting to feel confident.  Two overs later Nick Rayner was on a hat trick.  His fourth over took the final Atherton wicket and saw him come away with 3 for 7 for the day. Equally impressive were Daniel Davidson and Ruben Allison taking 1 for 0 and 2 for 10 respectively.  Other contributors in an impressively tight bowling effort were Connor White 0 for 3, Vincent Killeen 1 for 5, Tex (Terry) McDowell 0 for 8, Curtis White 0 for 9 and Finn Stanaway 0 for 20.  Muddies were able to restrict Atherton to a first innings total of all out for 103 from 28 overs.

Muddies opening batsmen Doble and Davidson got off to a steady start before Doble was clean bowled with the score at 13 with Killeen soon following caught on 1.  Davidson was supported well by Allison 6 and McDowell who was caught well out of his ground, stumped on 9.  White brothers Curtis and Connor both batted well to make 2 and 3 respectively.  Deuble, 27 was supported well by Clacherty 3, both batsmen seeing out the remainder of the innings unbeaten.  

Most of the boys had a full weekend of cricket with CFN trails on Sunday being played around the district but they’re all keen to get back to the Mud Pit next week to lock in their first win for the season.