Eymet finished the season with a comfortable win against newly formed Catus, from near Cahors. The visitors chose to bat first but struggled to make any headway against accurate swing bowling from Marcus Swift and Mike Stratford as the first 10 overs only yielded 15 runs. The first wicket finally fell when the openers tried to sneak a leg bye, but Bill Rhodes pounced to throw down the stumps with the opener well short.

The middle order faired no better. Every time they attempted to increase the tempo the ball went in the air towards a fielder, and was caught! The main beneficiary of this was Paul Martin who bagged another 4 wickets to follow his ‘fivefor’ last week. Ian Hull led the catchers with 3, and Martin Smith took a blinder in the gully. Martin wobbled the ball well to claim 2 wickets, one with the aid of a fine stumping by Casualty’s own ‘Stumper’ Atkins, who was on a flying visit back to France. The coup de grace to the innings was delivered by the skipper’s fizzing legbreak which was slapped down Ian’s throat. This could see the Captain high up in the bowling averages (justly so in his opinion).

Aussie Sutton bowled a lively opening spell for Catus, but Harvey Benwell and Bill weathered the storm well. The bowling from the other end was less testing and Harvey was soon in his stride, driving fluently and pulling for 6. He seemed to be unluckily adjudged LBW soon afterwards when on 23. Bill retired, to give some others a go, and Stumper and Linda Stratford carried Eymet to the brink of victory until Stumper under-clubbed one of his 7 irons and was well caught in the deep. The skipper strode to the crease to seal the game and end the season with a sumptuous hack over midwicket.

Congratulations to Catus for establishing themselves as a new club, and we look forward to visiting their new ground next year.

Catus 58 all out Martin 4-10, Smith 2- 10, Horlock 1-0, Swift 1-6, Hull 1-8

Eymet 59 – 3 Benwell 23, Rhodes 16