Simon Sidwell's debut as Sunday captain got off to a winning start when they visited their yearly first weekend opponents Collingtree in a friendly, gaining a huge 9 wicket victory in the process - all down to a huge century from Nick Rogers and his partnership with Richard Fletcher.
A day where rain was forecast but never brewed up as expected meant a full day's play was possible, however being forced to bowl first on the artificial strip after winning the toss - due a weaker batting line-up - Shenley still possessed a moderate bowling attack and started brightly, R Fletcher dropping a swift slip catching off Sidwell's bowling before some loose ball generated Collingtree's first fours.
The pleasing aspects of the innings was the regular wicket taking by differing batsmen. Jay Fletcher, Richard Fletcher and Graham Teagle all pitched in with 2 wickets and Chris Peacock grabbed 1 - despite both spinners bowling line and length significantly well on a flat plastic wicket.
And with Collingtree's batsmen top scoring with 69, 30 and 26, Sidwell managed to oust these batsmen after getting the last wicket on the final ball in an over costing 13 to bowl them out for 212 and claim 3-42, a home score expected on this type of track.
SCECC's batting was truly sublime - it needed to be. Andy Peacock and Nick Rogers opened moderately, surpassing 50 from 9 overs until Peacock caught behind. Out came Richard Fletcher and despite a few overs of uncertainty from both batsmen as the opening 3 bowlers were seen off, 15 overs for 81 runs turned into 131 from 19, and the victory came became apparent.
Rogers with his passive, bordering on interested, batting style saw him through to a fantastic century - his 5th career ton. The scorers almost forgetting to signal this feat - in fact, he notched up 101 before it was celebrated!
Quickly followed by Fletch's 33rd half century, the highest partnership was in sight.
Unfortunately, this evaded them by a few runs. The 2nd wicket partnership of 163 failed to outscore the 169 by A Wilkes and M Holman versus Linslade in 1993, but it surely would have been gained if not for the innings end, and is also the only ever partnership made in April to enter into Boris' statbook for All Time partnerships over 100!
A superb start to the Sunday season, a weaker side performing well enough yet the odd fielding error existed - Spencer Davies' debut did not go unnoticed though, some great fielding and 40 overs padded ready to go in at batsmen 4 will be memorable to all!
Condition: Artificial, outfield dry.
Catches dropped: 3 (Richard, Chris P, Chicky)
Toss: Won and Bowled (1 out of 1, 0 batted, 1 bowled)
Team: Andy Peacock, Nick Rogers, Richard Fletcher, Spencer Davies, Simon Sidwell, Tim Empson, Mike Camwell, Graham Teagle, Anthony Brace, Jay Fletcher. Chris Peacock.