The second grade side for the Douglas Mudcrabs Cricket Club travelled to Fretwell Park to take on Mulgrave on Sunday, and were looking for a good start to the game after last round's first innings debacle.

After sighting an ill-prepared picth, Muddies Skipper Nathan King decided to have a bowl first and try to use the deteriorating pitch to their advantage.

Ben Vikionkorpi opened the bowling with David Coulthard and it was a tight clean line with only 13 runs coming from the first 6 overs.

Coulthard was the first to break through in the tenth over with Simon Cody taking a screamer of a catch which was his first of three fine catches for the innings, and removing the opener in G. Willow.

The skipper then brought himself on to team up with Vikionkorpi who bowled 29 overs for the innings and took three magnificent wickets when they were most needed. He has knack of doing that for the team.

King also bowled some lovely line and length and was unlucky with a number of LBW decisions which were turned down.

King was the pick of the bowlers on this occasion, bowling 17.4 overs with 8 maidens, 4 wickets for only 35 runs seeing him back in the rhythm of bowling after a few years out of the action due to an injured knee.

Darryl Mison (0 for 26 off 10 overs), Shane Palmer (1 for 13 off 7 overs), and David Coulthard (1 for 40 off 13 overs) all played their part effectively in a very long day when not too many shots or runs were made on what is normally a very high scoring ground.

After the 80 overs were bowled for the day the skipper was pretty happy with everyone's efforts but saw room for improvement.

"We still had a few dropped catches which has been killing us all year, and is something we are working hard on at training, but we just need to be a bit more switched on in the field" said King.

This week will see a new player to club, Adam Lucus, who is set to take over the roll of Dale 'Drago' Arnell.

Rumour has it he is quicker then 'Drago', and we might even get a look at him this weekend in the C Grade if he gets the nod from the selectors when they take on Barron River.

Day two of the second grade game will again be at Fretwell Park and will see the Muddies innings start at 1pm chasing down Mulgrave's total of all out for 208.

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