Grace's were due to play against Brunswick Village. However they had double-booked their fixture, and were kind enough to find us a replacement fixture against East Preston, a strong impressive side with a very good pitch.
East Preston won the toss and batted and were all out for 184. Debutant Rose returned bowling figures of 3-0-9-2 and Shofiq's figures were 8-0-16-2. Impressive bowling figures contained East Preston who were looked at one stage to score over 200, with Smith scoring 77. The rest of Grace's attack stuck manfully to the task, with Dekock bowling fast and also returning with 2 wickets off 8 overs for 31 runs. Curtis and Mendis also took a wicket each.
What looked likely a very reachable target ended in a 36-run defeat! Graces lost Hardisty for 0, but Bielby (29) and Camberwell (19) scored quickly to take the score to 29, and then 77 in good partnerships. Mendis then hit an impressive 57 but controversially ran out two batting partners! Shofiq came to the crease and steadied the score towards the target but was caught having scored 25. The tail collapsed, with the last six batsmen mustering only 6 runs between them. It was not to be Grace's day as we lost by 34 runs. Not a great start to the season!