The local Muddies C grade travelled to the neutral Barron River ground for Sunday's morning match, hoping to secure second place on the ladder.

Though buoyed by their victory over Rovers earlier in the season, Muddies C weren't able to repeat the performance and recorded a disappointing loss.

Losing the toss to bat on a typical sub standard Crathern Park pitch , Muddies skipper Doble was out bowled early for naught failing his partner Darlington despite the pair having otherwise shared an impressive opening record for the season.

Darlington, the dominant opener took advantage of some luck on his way to 44 as he partnered with entrenched number three Keith Taylor for a stand of 61, followed by all rounder Mitchell Driver who also benefited from one of Rovers' seven dropped catches contributing 22 with Taylor in a stand of 41 by the 25th over. In an attempt to escalate the score in the last five overs, Taylor sacrificed his wicket stumped in the call of duty for a worthy 33 followed by a few quick wickets that saw the muddies manage just 15 off the last 7 overs, to finish with the minimum defendable target off 122, six wickets down.

Rovers' openers started very confidently at 0/29 off 8 overs to the spinning Redfern (0/12) and stalwart Schiesser (0/22), but it was Barnes who took first blood with a sharp diving catch to square leg followed by an assisted run out also by Barnes to have Rovers 2/33. The destruction single-handedly by Barnes continued in his third over as he crippled Rovers with another three wickets as they lost a total of 5 wickets for just 5 runs so that at 5/34 the Rovers' two opening bowlers were joined at the crease.

Drinks approached as the halfway point with Rovers benefiting from Muddies only dropped chance to be 5/59 and the Douglas team were confident that the inexperienced tail were not good enough to win the game. This is about where the Muddies confidence peaked and as the Rovers bowlers built their confidence they propelled themselves toward a relatively unlikely win losing no further wickets.

Muddies were disappointed to lose with an over or so remaining, but took solace from impressive bowling from newcomer Julian Porter, who brought his varietal left arm medium pace and the faster pace and difficult delivery height of Driver. Both were otherwise luckless but no doubt showed themselves as future assets as the team propel toward the last segment of the season over the next 6 weeks.

Weather pending Muddies C & B grades will play back to back games a.m and p.m at home at the Mud Pit, which they hope won't end up too muddy this Sunday!