Saturday saw Beddington's first XI visit recently demoted Malden Wanderers, a side who has also had a mixed start to the season.

Beddington's skipper Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl on a slightly green looking wicket, a decision supported by the possibly difficult control of protecting the small straight boundaries when defending a total.

Cummins and Lester started promisingly with the new ball beating the bat and quickly got a breakthrough as Cummins removed Cousins with a smart catch by Graham Lester the Beddington keeper.

Either side exchanged blows as boundaries were met with good attacking bowling and after 10 over the home side were 44 for 2.

During the middle period of the game Beddington's bowlers created chances however as per previous weeks there were too many loose balls which eased the pressure. Shaun Lewis and Fawad Bajwa bowled well in tandem as per usual, however the Malden Wanderers batsman formed a good partnership to take them through to 129-4 off 30 overs.

A period of the game when it was in the balance. Wanderers then accelerated in the second half of their innings with a a very strong stand between Birrell and Wackett took the home side to 276 for 8 0ff their 50 overs. Ill disciplined bowling from the visitors allowed the home side off the hook, but still the target was chasable with Beddington's strong batting side on paper.

Former Northants & Leicester professional, Ryan Cummins was the pick of the bowlers returning with 5 for 40 off his allotment of overs.

Beddington needed a strong start if they were to chase the total down, and unfortunately lost Graham Lester early to some good seam bowling by Michael Cottrell.

Gamble looked impressive for his 41 however the top order as in previous weeks failed to take accoutnability for their wickets and occupy the crease for a prolonged period of time.

After amassing 85 runs in the first 15 overs with the loss of only one wicket, the visitors then collapsed to 96 for 4. this brought Down and Cummins to the crease who looked to steady the ship and batted for 15 overs bringing the score to 150 with a renewed chance of chasing down the total.

Cummins then fell to some fine spin bowling by Crampton and from then on the game slide out of Beddington's grasp as the last 5 wickets fell for 40 runs.

Beddington ended up 191 all out off just 43 overs, another situation of if's and buts, something which must change if Beddington are going to compete in Division One in 2011.

Improvements must be made and change must be built around the strong club ethos which continues to grow in the very much home grown side.