Both the Saturday and Sunday 1sts endured a slow start to the 2017 season.

The Saturday 1sts hosted Ketton in the opening game of the 2017 Cambs/Hunts Premier League. After predictably losing the toss, the 1sts had to bat second on a testing wicket. Having reduced the visitors to 77-5, a frustrating 6th wicket partnership helped Ketton to reach 213 all out despite 3 wickets for Conor Craig and 2 apiece for Tom Norman and Adam Morris. The 1sts then struggled in reply and were bowled out for 126 with only Dan Bandaranaike (35) contributing effectively. Credit should go to 15 year old Ohnais Basharat who kept wicket very well on 1st team debut and Aves and Arbas Nawaz who also made Saturday 1st team debuts.

The 1sts also entered the Royal London Club Championship for the first time and visited Great and Little Tew of the Home Counties ECB Premier League. On a good batting wicket the 1sts reached 169 all out (Laud 69, Norman 24) but the hosts played aggressively and reached the target in 21 overs with 6 wickets in hand.

The Rutland 1sts put up a good fight against a strong Oundle side with batting efforts from Keith Markham and Richard Morris amongst others. However, Oundle were able to chase down the total for the loss of 1 wicket.

A disappointing weekend but the the club being able to get 33 players out for Sunday games is hopefully a good sign for the rest of the season.

All scorecards are available on play cricket.