Awful start to the season in Baildon's cup final

It had been 224 days since Whitehall's last competitive display, and despite 2 promising displays during pre season friendlies you could tell it'd been 8 months since Whitehall had played together. Whitehall won the toss and invited Baildon to bat first on a very good looking wicket. Baildon settled in quickly with P Whitrick getting a quick fire 15, and was dropped by captain Wood, which really did seem to set the tone for an below par fielding performance. Baildons other opener Herdson retired hurt after being struck on the hand by Joe, and at 60-3 Whitehall seemed to be just shading the early exchanges despite the not so impressive fielding. But unfortunately this brought S Bullock and S Jolly to the crease and between them put 99 runs on for the 4th wicket, both batsmen led a charmed life early on, but then looked to bat very well. Whitehall were fortunate even then to break that partnership as a mix up between the pair and good work between Aidan and Paul causing a run out. 2 more quick wickets (1 each for Simon and Joe bringing Simon's total to 4 for the day) brought D Paget to the crease and with the help of Jolly the pair of them took Baildon's total beyond 200. Tom took 2 late wickets, the 2nd of which dismissed Paget with one of the catches of the season from Paul. Baildon's innings came to a close as bizarrely they declared with 2 overs remaining with a total of 246-8. A very large target and Whitehall would have to beat their Dales Council chase record to win, but they still felt confident as the wicket hadn't played any tricks. Whitehall's chase started badly as Joe hung out his bat and caught an edge with the score on 3, and 27 runs late Mick joined him in the hutch. This brought Tom to join with Nigel (on debut) to the crease. The pair shared a stand of 74 before Nigel fell LBW for 42. If you'd blinked you'd have missed Bav's innings of four which involved a four over midwicket and the shot after tried to repeat the trick but only succeded in knocking the ball down the fielders throat. Whitehall were now 108-4, but with plenty of batting to go, Whitehall still fancied their chances of getting a result. Unfortunately Tom was dismissed with the score on 143, to a dubious LBW decision, after scoring 75. Paul followed the very next ball which happened to be the next over. 2 balls later Bob had been bowled. A single had given Richard the strike and he became fell the very next balls. 143-4 had gone to 144-8 in the space of 7 balls. Captain Wood fell the next over despite claiming he'd hit it, and the collapse was completed only 7 ball later as Simon was bowled. All in all a very disapointing start. Nigel and Tom's partnership gave Whitehall some hope for the rest of the season, but if they wanted to really mount a serious push for promotion they need to improve vastly in the coming weeks