HALES played their first home game of the season at their new ground Postwick against a strong East Harling side and pulled off an excellent 79-run victory.

HALES played their first home game of the season at their new ground Postwick against a strong East Harling side and pulled off an excellent 79-run victory.

Hales won the toss and with the luxury of having half the top order at the ground on time, Hales elected to bat. Chris Andersen and Harmer opened up and both looked solid as they took the shine of the new ball and softened the seam with some fine stroke play. The pair added 64 for the first wicket until Harmer was bowled of his pads to a leg-side delivery. P Squire followed quickly in the next over but Ramsdale and Andersen soon built a solid partnership.

Chris, 15, was growing with composure and Ramsdale was finding his feet as he started to show his quality. A 70-run partnership between the pair put Hales in a strong position until Andersen fell for a fine 58, his maiden half-century for the first team after another outstanding display of true determination.

With wickets in hand it was Ramsdale and Rowe who made the charge at the end of the innings for Hales as they pushed towards the 200 mark. Rowe added a very useful 37 and Ramsdale was back to his best and scoring freely, but eventually fell for 56.

Cornish and G Squire took Hales to a good total of 218 with some clean hitting off 46 overs and four wickets to spare.

East Harling's reply got of to a static start as Lovick and Robin Andersen offered no scoring opportunities and bowled tight lines. Their only response was to try and hit over the top, and after two successive boundaries, Lovick produced a top delivery to leave Wyatt caught behind by C Andersen.

Squire was bought in to the attack, and claimed the other opener in his third over to leave Harling 33 for two off 17. With Rowe suffering a bad back, Harmer was given a chance to bowl and made an immediate impact. Bowling decent away swing, Harmer produced a treble-wicket maiden to rip apart the middle order and put Hales firmly in charge.

The Hales fielding was superb as Chris Andersen led the way with four outstanding catches, Cornish took two catches and Dan and Robin Andersen took decent catches too.

Harmer then claimed his fourth wicket with a fine inswinger to leave Leeder plum in front and R Andersen claimed his second. With Harling 74-7 off 31 overs S Scott and T Alexander added 65 for the eighth wicket until Rowe cleaned up with two wickets in two balls to finish the game with Harling all out for 139.

The Tom Vale Electrical Engineering MoM: Chris Andersen.