The 5s travelled to Knightwood Leisure Centre to take on Mansbridge CC, looking to bounce back from a last ball loss the week before.

After a unanimous team decision to look to bat first, skipper Finlay Graham characteristically lost the toss, but to everyone's relief, St Cross were put into bat. Openers Alex Avoth and Ben Appleton started confidently, both finding the boundaries on multiple occasions despite having to navigate a tricky opening spell from Mansbridge's premier pace bowler. Alex's aggressive innings came to an end, caught at the long on boundary for 34, and Ben was trapped in front for 24. This brought Sam Gearing and Kevin Stone into the middle, and although there were some pleasing shots from Kevin, they struggled to kick the scoring rate on, meaning St Cross went into drinks 85-2 off 20 overs. The wicket of Kevin for 12 brought Hampshire Under-18s all-rounder Riley Sacco into the crease, a relief for the spectators on the boundary after Riley's 45-minute barrage of yapping and singing. Immediately, Riley showed he wasn't intimidated by the variable bounce of the pitch, striding down the wicket and planting the Mansbridge bowlers to all parts of the ground. As he rollicked along, he attempted a number of reverse sweeps and scoops to varying levels of success, but when content with playing straight, continued to dispatch a number of imperious straight sixes with minimum effort. Riley then tried one ramp shot too many and was bowled for 59, undoubtedly an innings that turned the tide of the match. Steven Kidd joined Sam for the last 8 overs and nonchalantly raced to a quick 31 off not very many balls. Despite not having much of the strike, Sam continued to move the scoring rate along and accelerated in the last couple overs of the innings, ending 48 not out and pushing the final score up to 245/4 off the 40 overs.

The bowling innings was a joint effort from all St Cross bowlers: despite getting off to a confident start and not losing any wickets after 12 overs, skipper Fin's changeups started to make inroads, assisted by the stump-to-stump medium pace of Ben. After the openers fell, Fin cracked the game open by taking two wickets in two balls, including the Mansbridge no.4 (out first ball caught behind brilliantly by Guy Punnet) who Fin was so eager to get out. Then came the moment of the match, when Steven dropped the sitter of all sitters at mid-off and then proceeded to kick the ball over the boundary in frustration. But you couldn't write it, as 3 balls later as the ball is travelling over his head off the bat of the Mansbridge no.5, Steven sidesteps, leaps up and plucks the ball one handed out of the sky, much to the adulation of all of the St Cross fielders. Catches don't get much better than that! Harry Stone then came into the attack and managed to pick up two wickets, as well as the returning skipper, Fin, picking up one more to complete his incredible 5 for. The match was wrapped up with a beautifully spinning and dipping delivery from Sam and Mansbridge were bowled out for 165.

A comfortable win for the boys and girls as they picked up 24 points and a punnet (haha) of good memories from the day out.