With new Captain Tony Sample still on the injured list, Dai Berry took a strong Euratom side to Lodi for the inaugural game in the recently formed Northern League. Both sides looked to have recruited some new blood for the competition, while off the field ECC mascot Monty Ramsbottom hoped to bring the same good fortune to the First XI as he had to the Under-15s a few days earlier at Trento.

   At the toss the skipper was surprised to be greeted by Graham Kelsey, last seen behind the stumps at Cabris, who promptly rejected the use of Dai’s lucky (sic) Bradman coin & proffered instead a silver Franc bearing the image of Voltaire with plume (presumably scoring).  As it turned out the whole procedure was pointless as Kelsey won the toss & chose bat first anyway.  Initially the Idle openers, Vic Riccaboni & Dutch/South African Mark Kriek, made slow but steady progress against Euratom fast men Sumith Katunayake & Sumith Dias. The introduction of  Graham Starost (from the Adda end) & Shalan Chetty (from the Udder end) saw the run-rate pick up, but in his third over Chetty had Kriek well caught at leg-slip by Phil Cake for 25. Then Kriek’s replacement Shanish was just starting to look dangerous when one of Phil Cake’s dippers left him stranded & Paul Voizey whipped off the bails.

  When Idle danger man Nazeer came to the crease in the 14th over with the score at 57 for 2, it was time to bring on the big guns. A much improved Ashanta Fernando bowled very fast & straight & soon took out Nazeer’s middle stump after the Sri Lankan had hit 22 in only five shots. At the end of the same over Fernando also proved too hot to handle for the normally very steady Silvio Leydi who went L.B.W. for a duck. With the troublesome Vic Riccaboni still at the crease, now batting with Marco Landi, the skipper decided to experiment with his partnership-breaker Jamie Speed & with new recruit Prebodha Liyanage. Liyanage bowled a steady three overs of spin for 12 runs & looked as though he might be very useful once he had shaken off the rust.  More importantly Speed’s technique of spinning everything except the ball once again baffled the batsman & Riccaboni soon dollied one up for the young bowler to follow through & take a good return catch. Landi was joined by Graham Kelsey whose scoring shot selection for the next half  hour seemed to be limited to the dab through gully.  Landi though was a revelation, a rabbit transformed, & he took on the bowling in great style, notching up 18 useful runs before he finally fell to a lightning bolt from Fernando who had been brought back for the tail. With the overs running out Graham Kelsey finally started to hit out & was soon caught for 37 on the boundary at long-on by Liyanage during the second of some expensive overs from the Euratom skipper. Last season’s ferret Tommy Svensson then showed the fruit of some assiduous practice during the winter months  by unexpectedly seeing off the Euratom bowlers with some very competent shots, including a nicely-struck boundary. He finished on 7 runs & the Idle innings closed at 188 for 7 wickets off the full 40 overs.

   After lunch on a very hot, sunny day, Paul Voizey & Shalan Chetty made a steady start in singles against Arshan, who bowled  right-arm round, quite fast but straight to second slip, & the young Shanish who looked very useful  & who unleashed several climbers off a good length & another couple which cut Voizey in two just missing the top of his middle-stump.  In the sixth over with the score on 21, Paul Voizey was caught for 5 off Shanish & the promoted Sumith Dias was sent to the middle. He showed his all-round class with some very solid batting & the score was just starting to pick up when Chetty got a snick to slip off Arshan & was dismissed for 4.  Dias was joined at the crease by Sumith Katunayake & the two Sri Lankans soon set about the Idle bowlers. They quickly took the score to 79 before Vic Riccaboni, probably the pick of the Idle bowlers with his controlled swing & cut, finally trapped Dias L.B.W. for 30 in the 18th over. Katunayake looked to be in complete control but he was joined by an out-of-sorts Sathya Dasarathan who could only manage a couple of fours before snicking Kriek through to the keeper. But then unknown quantity Liyanage proved to be as competent with the bat as he had been with the ball & he played a very solid innings for 19 useful runs. By the time he was caught off Marco Landi's’ bowling Euratom were only 23 runs short of victory. Ashanta Fernando then did a good job as anchor man while Katunayake  notched up another 20 runs before he finally edged Shanish to Leydi behind the stumps for a magnificent 75. All that was left  for Dai Berry was to watch from the bowler’s end as Fernando turned the first ball of Landi’s next over to leg for two runs & Euratom ran out comfortable winners of an exciting game by 4 wickets with 4 overs in hand. For once a well paced run-chase in a situation in which many previous ECC teams had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory! 

  MOM:   Phil Cake  gets an honourable mention for a good all-round performance, a wicket & a catch, but  Sumith Katunayake must get the first  MOM of the season for being top scorer with 75.  In the absence of any disastrous performances, stand-in skipper Dai Berry probably deserves the Golden Banana for some fairly incompetent field setting.  There were no ducks & Mario stays with Dai who had claimed him in the last game before the migration season.