Nunholm welcomed St. Ninians (Prestwick 2nds) for the last game of the season with the home team looking for a good send off for Jeremy Goodin and Aiden Goodin who are moving back to Jerry's homeland, New Zealand.

Captain Cox won the toss and elected to bowl and although both opening bowlers, Cox and Woodhouse tested the opening pair of Morgan and Thayne they were able to turn around the strike and built an excellent opening partnership of 70 of 14 overs.

The innings changed when the father and son duo of Sam Thornley and Sean Thornley came on. After a uncharacteristic wayward start by Sean, including a wicket bowled undone by a no-ball for a foot knocking the stumps, he quickly came back into his own removing Thayne for 29, bowled, and another wicket, J. Stafford, again bowled the next ball and yet another wicket bowled in the next over. Sean was excellently supported by his father opening up with two maidens and was unlucky not to pick up a wicket, with final figures of 9 overs for 36.

Sean took his 4th wicket, bowled again, in his 6th over and after reaching the junior limit of seven was taken off leaving him three overs for the end of the innings. David Davidson replaced Sam Thornely at the Club House End and provided excellent control at the vital part of the innings with M. Morgan nearing his fifty and being well supported by P. Stafford. Davidson started with five maidens including the crucial wicket of Morgan for 56 while Aiden Goodin came on at the Railway End and bowled with good control and spun the ball past a forward defense to bowl Millar for 3. David Davidson also bowled the dangerous P. Stafford for 44 and Sean Thornley was brought back on to finish off the tail which he did with his first two balls, both bowled again. He finished with 6 wickets for 27 off 7.2 overs, all but one bowled, and just missed out on the Club's Jimmy Steel Bowling Award by a mere three conceded runs. St. Ninians finished on 170 all out in the 46th over.

Nunholm knew it would be important to start the run chase off well and not to lose early wickets. Opening pair of Mat Williams and Sam Thornely were up to the early challenge and got through the first ten overs with no loss of wicket for 33 runs, with accurate bowling by P. Stafford keeping it tight from one end.

P. Stafford did dismiss Williams for 12, caught and bowled in the thirteenth over, and the dangerous off spinner Fletcher Rao had Sam Thornely caught at slip after hitting four 4’s in his 18. It was important for Nunholm to build another partnership which David Davidson and Jeremy Goodin were able to do, getting used to the pitch and contending with the spin from Rao. Goodin was struggling with a calf injury but he was still able to keep turning over the strike with Davidson who was putting away the bad ball to the boundary.

As the partnership was growing Davidson took a ricocheted ball to his nose after padding up to the off spinner J. Stafford. He had to come off to stop the bleeding which brought Andrew Dawson to the crease. This would be the last time the two Kiwis would bat together at Nunholm. Dawson got into his work and was upping the run rate at a key time, scoring a fluid 26 before becoming J. Stafford's first victim caught at point.

This brought David Davidson back to the crease and he continued where he left off and together with Jeremy Goodin moved the score up to 146 before the latter hit a full toss back to J. Stafford for a caught and bowled for a score of 26. Cox came in at six but played a false shot and was LBW for a second ball duck and Max Corbett-Byers was bowled first ball leaving Nunholm 146 for 6 needing 30 runs from six overs, 5 runs an over now required.

Sean Thornley was a calming influence and he and Davidson took the score to ten needed with three overs left when Davidson was LBW for 42 to J. Stafford for his 5th wicket. This brought John Woodhouse to the crease and he got off the mark hitting a four through wide mid-on which settled everyone’s nerves, Sean Thornley then calmly finished the innings with a pulled boundary through mid-wicket to take the team home with eight balls to spare.

After a late debate, it was decided it was a joint Solway Print Player of the Match award for Sean Thornley, taking 6 wickets and hitting the winning runs, and David Davidson, getting 2 wickets and top scoring with 42.

Overall it was great team performance to finish off the season with a special mention to the Goodin family (Jeremy, Lee, Aiden & Hannah) who have all been a big part of cricket in Dumfries over the last twenty years for both Dumfries CC and St. Michaels CC.

Captain Cox
Big thank you to Adam Elliott for scoring the first innings and umpiring the second!

St. Ninians 170 all out of 45.2 overs
M. Morgan (56), P. Stafford (44)
Sean Thornley 6 for 27, Davidson 2 for 10, Aiden Goodin 1 for 18
Nunholm 172 for 7 of 48.4 overs
Davidson (42), Jeremy Goodin (26), Dawson (26)
J. Stafford 5 for 35, P. Stafford 1 for 20, F. Rao 1 for 15

Online scorecard: www.cricketstats.org.uk/wdcu/2021/6/0609.html