The weather forecast was good, but the pitch was wet due to overnight rain. The crowds were in; LNZ bringing down an excellent group of 20 odd supporters young and old.

The toss was won and in contrast to the last few years where LNZ have batted first, Skipper Richard Fish had no hesitation of asking Goodwood to have a bat.

Philip Bartle was given the new ball with a cross wind to help his inswinger. The wind provided too much help and he struggled to maintain control but was tight as usual. At the other end debutant Kieran White showed some promising pace and troubled the openers without luck. The Goodwood openers weathered the early overs and it was left to another debutant Fletcher Dunning to take the first wicket. The track was slow and the bowling tight and Goodwood moved slowly to 120-4 at lunch after by 64-0 so a good come back by LNZ in the field.

As usual the lunch was sumptuous and LNZCC took the field hoping to rap you the remaining Goodwood batsmen. An early breakthrough with a smart leg side catch from the very reliable Peter Gibson behind the stumps was about as good as it got for the LNZCC bowlers after lunch as it brought two of the young bucks from Goodwood to the crease. They proceeded to take advantage of some lose bowling and quickly complied an 85 run partnership with some fine strokes over the heads of mid on and off and through the covers. A few wickets at the end for Richard Keyse (3) and Fletcher Dunning (3) brought a declaration from Goodwood at 240-8 leaving LNZC 55-60 overs to get the required runs.

The weather was warming and the track drying as the LNZCC openers Andrew Swan and Matt Fanning took to the crease. Some fiery fast bowling left Matt and Andy a bit battered and bruised and a beamer left Matt with an icepack on his arm at tea. Andy Swann fell to an unplayable ball (described by umpire at the time TP) and this brought Richard Dellabarca to the wicket. With his girl friend off shopping he had no one to impress anymore and he batted well in a good partnership with Matt. Matt Fanning at the other end was compiling a very good innings taking advantage of anything loose. Mike Singleton and Matt made good progress and both scored well-deserved 50s before both were out suffering with the ball not coming onto the bat. Tony Penman was compiling runs at the other end and being as dogged as ever. With the score 189-3 with 15 overs left and plenty of supposed bating left and the inexplicable started. Mike Singleton lost his wicket and this was the start of a dramatic collapse.

7 wickets fell for 37 runs and LNZ came up short in a game that was there for the taking. The top 5 had done their job well but the final 6 succumbed to same good bowling and some complacency that had crept in after watching all the good work early on.

In the reciprocal man of the match awards voted on by the opposing teams Matt and Mike got mentions but Tony Penman got his bottle of champagne and was adjudged our man of the match by Goodwood for his dogged batting and never giving up and being 55 not out at the end. Well deserved.

Many thanks to Marty Conway for umpiring to his usual high standard and looking well after his operation. Also thanks to Caroline Green for her scoring and ensuring that the only thing that looked good after this defeat was the quality of the scorebook.

Our supporters came down with high hopes of a good day, fine food and a good game of cricket and many thank to them all for making the long journey down. They got the fine food (lunch, tea and pizzas) courtesy of our always welcoming hosts, the weather did improve, the cricket had some good patches but ultimately LNZ came up a bit short.

Andrew Swann           6

Matt Fanning          68                               (72balls, 9x4's, 1x6)

Richard Dellabarca    13

Mike Singleton        55                               (86balls, 9x4's)

Tony Penman           55*                              (79balls, 8x4's)

*Richard Fish          1        1

+Peter Gibson          6        1           1

Kieran White           0

Fletcher Dunning       0        1

Richard Keyse          4        1

Philip Bartle          0

Extras 18

FOW 17(Swann), 69(Dellabarca), 115(Fanning), 189(Singleton), 191(Fish), 215(Gibson), 217(White), 218(Dunning), 225(Keyse), 226(Bartle)

Philip Bartle      10    2   58    0

Kieran White       11    0   50    1

Fletcher Dunning   13    2   49    3

Richard Keyse      11    4   26    3

Anthony Penman      3.5  1   15    1

Michael Singleton   7    0   32    0

Extras 18

FOW 64, 85, 85, 97, 144, 229, 232, 240