On a gorgeous day at the Walker Ground, Adam Brand and Jack Davis skippered 2 mixed sides, with the aim of giving everyone a game before the League season gets underway.

Brand won the toss and elected to bat on a flat deck, with Jonny Lubin and Sam Clarfield opening up. Benjy Lovat and Sam Feigenbaum took the new ball for the JD XI, and it only took until the first ball of the 5th over for Lovat to make the breakthrough, squaring up Lubin with a ball that held its line, finding the edge, neatly taken by Davis at first slip.

This brought Sam 'The Sledgehammer' Jacobs to the crease, who surprised us all with a series of Boycott-esque defensive shots and leaves. Judah Kandel was able to beat his defences though, with a nut that sent him on his way. The Brando XI looked to be in a spot of bother, in need of an experienced batter to steady the ship, and that is exactly what they got from the man who has scored over 6500 runs for Vale in the last 20 years. Brand and Clarfield looked to put the pressure back on the bowlers, punishing the bad ball and rotating the strike well. Both reached their 50s before retiring, which brought Rafi Saville and Jon Feigenbaum to the crease. Lior Heyman picked up the wicket of Saville, perfectly locating Davis at Mid On. J. Feigenbaum was next to depart, a rank drag down from Avi Brayam hit straight to Robin Glassberg at Mid Wicket.

Jake Musikant and Yoni Laitner came in with only 5 overs to go, and accelerated the scoring before the former fell to good catch from Benjy Lovat off Jacob Cowan, who thoroughly deserved a wicket. Sam Feig picked up another, as did Lior, and a simple run out for Alex Haffner meant that the Brando XI finished their innings on a competitive 201/8 from 40 overs.

In response, Avi Baker and debutant John Geraghty batted beautifully, opening up the innings, soaking up pressure of tight spells from Brand and Saville, and punishing the bad ball. Both retired at drinks with Baker 42* off 69 and Geraghty 51* off 57.

The drinks break brought Heyman and Robin Glassberg to the crease, the latter departing cheaply, but with the JD XI only needing 80 from 19 overs with 9 wickets in hand, Davis sought to get the game finished, striking at just under 200 before holing out to Jake Musikant off the bowling of Laitner. Haffner joined Heyman, who fell to a sharp bouncer from Lubin, before Lovat was run out following a calamitous mix up. Despite some tight bowling and fielding, the JD XI were able to see out the chase with 5 overs to spare.

A match played in good spirit with 17 different bowlers and valuable time at the crease for batters. Thoroughly looking forward to the season ahead and in particular our 1st team getting their CVL Division 1 campaign underway against Brondesbury on Sunday.