A cool and overcast morning created a distinct impression of the early season: an impression which was only reinforced by Warwick’s lacklustre performance against a strong Monmouth side.

Having lost the toss, we were inserted by the opposition who seemingly hoped to take advantage of the conditions. We started watchfully through Dunning and Gupta, taking just ten runs from the first six overs. Monmouth’s opening combination of a genuinely pacy seamer and an accurate leg spinner were difficult to get away, though it must be said that there was an absence of real intent in our batting that would be apparent throughout at least the first half of our innings. Our first boundary came up through a nice clip by Gupta and this saw a couple of stronger overs posted, but despite the paceman being seen off and hopes of now pushing on, we lost our first wicket. Gupta had started to look good, but having reached 21 he tried to drive a ball that was simply too short. Failing to get over the top of it and never in control he could only loft the ball high into the grateful hands of mid on. This was in the ninth over and six more tepid overs passed, enlivened by a couple of good boundaries from Thomas, before the loss of our other opener. Dunning had been rather becalmed but just started to accelerate when he was the victim of a tremendous piece of fielding: a fantastic one-handed catch by a diving mid-wicket. He departed for 10 (off 35 balls) and worse was to follow. Thomas had already been given one life as a cut burst through the hands of the point fieldsman, but two overs after the loss of Dunning he repeated the shot. This time the fielder made no mistake, and we were three down for 52. Davies and Wye made turgid progress towards the drinks interval, with Davies failing to score from his first 13 balls and Wye from his first seven when, with two balls left before the break, Davies slashed a ball wildly to mid on to be dismissed for one off fifteen balls. With half of our overs gone we were 58 for four and in real danger of subsiding embarrassingly.

After a conversation about the need to show greater intent in our batting and our running we started to show improvements which, ultimately, allowed us to put a competitive, if still very much under-par, score on the board. Wye and Newell put together a handy partnership of 16 for the fifth wicket which was ended sooner than it should due to a mix up. Newell lobbed the ball up in the direction of cover and set off for the run. Wye was ball watching at the other end. Newell had gone three quarters of the way down before realising his partner was not going to respond and was run out by a distance trying to recover his crease. Our best batsman of the innings now came to the wicket. From the start Downes looked organised and busy, punishing anything short, or overpitched, and looking to work the ball into space for singles. He and Wye put on 25 runs together and were both looking capable of reaching big scores before Wye inexplicably missed a straight one from the off spinner to be bowled for 24. Singh gave Downes some support but slashed the ball to point for seven to leave us seven down with 107 on the board. We needed another partnership and thankful we got it courtesy of Dunlop who looked considerably better than a number nine. He initially played the supporting role, helping Downes to eke his way towards the 150 runs that had seemed a long way off at the half-way stage. In the end Downes fell just short of that mark, and a potential personal milestone, failing to clear cover to be dismissed for 38. Dunlop, ably supported by Budd (7), almost saw us home, with Dunlop using the pace of the returning seamers very effectively, including one maximum off a very clean drive over wide mid off/deep extra cover. He eventually fell just before the end for a well-made 21, but the efforts of the lower order had helped us to reach 166 from our 40 overs.

At the lunch interval there was still much optimism that we could retrieve the game with our bowling. That optimism was dented by a loose first over from Budd that went for nine, including a pair of well-struck boundaries, but Wye was tighter, giving away just two and then Budd struck from the penultimate ball of the third over to bowl Jones off his pads for just one. Alas, that was about as good as it got. The remainder of the opening spells from the seamers were expensive. Budd’s three overs went for 21 and Wye’s for 20. Spin was introduced through Dunlop, who bowled four tidy overs for 19, but it was the erratic Paige who eventually got the breakthrough at the third time of asking. Both Collins and Smith had been dropped in the deep (by Newell and Dunning respectively) off Paige before Smith missed a hoik across the line and was bowled for 24. Paige’s final bowling figures of 4-0-39-1 told the tale: he had created a few chances as batsmen went after him, but there had been far too many loose deliveries for the opposition to prey upon. The second wicket had fallen with the score on 87 in the 13th over. It was clear that the game was not going to last the distance, but there remained a glimmer of hope that a little clatter of wickets might keep it competitive. It was not to be. Whilst Gupta bowled economically to record figures of three overs for 11 runs, Lal’s 2.1 overs went for 32 and the game accelerated away from us. Collins was out just before the end, holing out to Dunning for 57 (off the bowling of Singh). Davies retired having reached fifty and there was to be one final wicket as Monmouth attempted to complete the victory with a flourish, giving Singh (2-0-16-2) his second wicket, a stumping. Monmouth completed the victory with almost nineteen overs to spare and having lost only four wickets (two within ten runs of victory).

Whilst we went down to a sizeable and deserved defeat, it is to be hoped that in blowing off the cobwebs and shaking away the rust we have prepared ourselves for the season ahead, realising in the process that challenges await us in the coming weeks which will require a higher standard of performance if we are to overcome them.

Man-of-the-match: H. Downes for his performance with the bat.

Champagne moment: Dunning's six.