Sawbo 3’s welcomed Takeley 2nd XI for the first game of the year at Leventhorpe. Takeley won the toss and slightly surprisingly asked Sawbo to bat on a fresh pitch in sunny conditions. However, this seemed to be an excellent decision as swing and steep bounce made batting tricky. With 97 for 7 at drinks, Sawbo were struggling to set a defendable target. However Ethan Hook took the attack to the Takeley bowlers and scored a quickfire 46 off 31 balls, including four 4’s and three 6’s. He was ably supported by Romesh Paktsun (13 off 11), Harry Frans (22 off 16) and Jack Dougal (5 no). Hook was the last wicket to fall, just short of a well deserved half century, in the 31st over setting Takeley a target of 178 to win.

In reply, Takeley started well with an opening partnership of 58 off the first 16 overs. This was followed by another good partnership of 56, but Romesh Paktsun then removed opened Jack Connolly (56) and picked up a 2nd wicket two balls later. Takeley were already behind the run rate at this point, but with 10 overs to go only needed 68 to win with 7 wickets in hand. But Paktsun and Kieran Morgan continued to squeeze the scoring, despite a number of dropped catches. With 4 overs to go, Takeley were still well in the game with 34 needed to win and 5 wickets in hand. But Harry Frans (1 – 27) and Jack Dougall (1 – 14) returned to bowl brilliantly at the death, only allowing 14 runs off those 4 overs, meaning Takeley ended 158 for 8.

That made it 3 wins out of 3 and left the 3’s joint top of Division 2.