ON Saturday Huntley hosted Corse and Staunton III, for their first home match of the season in Division One of the Cheltenham, Gloucester and Forest League, writes Duncan Foot.

Winning the toss, captain Jon Green elected to bat first, and despite the loss of an early wicket the team pulled away to 200 thanks to a fine partnership between Charlie Gayther and Jon Green before Green was bowled on 67, including four fours, by Stuart Smellie.

Charlie was finally dismissed on 144, with the score on 250, after an innings that included two sixes and 19 fours.

The innings was seen out by Steve Powell with 14 and Tom Mann with to leave the visitors needing 262 for victory.

In reply, Corse & Staunton lost wickets at regular intervals, with only opener Hugo Smellie troubling the bowlers.

H Smellie finished on 60 after being caught behind by Josh Cooper off the bowling of C Gayther.

One highlight for the visitors was the late-innings knock from James Pritchard, beating his previous high score of one n.o., by some margin when he was caught by C Gayther for 14, including a four, from the bowling of Huntley new boy Jason Saunders.

The Huntley bowling unit performed well, with all players hitting an economy below 3.5 per over, Colin Reeves being the most economical giving away just 17 runs off his eight overs.

Corse and Staunton closed their innings on 114 when debutant Tom Dudfield was bowled by Charlie Gayther, his fourth wicket of the match, to give Huntley a 147-run victory.

On Sunday the club’s Women’s First XI made history as they started their 35-over campaign with a trip to Cheltenham.

One of only eight clubs in the county to be playing at this level, alongside the likes of Frocester and Golden Hill, Huntley are leading the way for women’s cricket in the Forest of Dean.

Missing regular openers Emily Kibble and Emily Ryall, and despite a solid start with the bat, lead by captain Katie Foot, the team started to falter in the ninth over when the wickets of Lynne McAlpine (11) and Gem Abbott (0) fell in successive balls to leave Huntley on 45-3.

Cheltenham left-arm in-swinger Trudy Bartlett did for Talia Scott in the 12th over before Katie was finally dismissed for 24 in the 14th over with the score 64-5.

The team found it hard to adjust to the longer format, looking to play big shots when patience was required, but their commitment to the innings was admirable, finally finishing on 82 after 20.4 overs - officially the longest innings they’d ever played – by four balls.

It took the hosts just over 12 overs to reach the target, mainly thanks to the unbeaten 52 from Georgie Martin, although Huntley were close on a number of occasions to take wickets from the bowling of Katie Foot, Talia Scott and Eve Powell.

Despite the defeat, there were a number of positives to take from the game, especially for the newest players Helen Robinson and Hayley Hutton, which the team will take forward into their match next Sunday at home against Apperley.