The preliminary round of the Blincoe Cup was played on Saturday.

The competition offers a different challenge to players with a reduced number of 16, eight-ball overs.

In the earlier rounds teams have the opportunity of turning the game into two innings matches. This this becomes mandatory at the semi-final and final stages.

Ramsey and Finch Hill played up at the Grammar School and took the single-innings option. The hosts batted first posted 133 for 4 in their 16 overs.

Grant Atchison opened the batting with 12-year-old Luke Ward. Atchinson was the first to fall hitting a just over a run a ball 41 to leave the score on 62.

Tom Moffatt and Brandon Atchison had brief stays at the crease adding one and nine respectively before Ward fell too leaving Chris Wade and Paul Nicholson to advance the scores both finishing the innings not out on 27 and 19.

The Finch Hill bowlers all returned tidy figures with the pick of the bowlers being new signing Daniel Bion who took 2 for 9 in his two overs.

In reply the Finches never really got going with no batsman reaching double figures. The side were all out for 51 with 20 of those runs coming from extras.

Alexander Kneale returned figures of 3-10 in his spell, Stephen Needham and Chris Wade taking two wickets each too as Ramsey ran out comfortable winners.

Union Mills hosted the IoMCA Development XI in the day’s other tie.

It was Mills’ first outing of the season and the Development XI looked to improve on last week’s performance. With four older academy players available it gave an opportunity to play a side filled completely with youth, George Burrows taking over from Mark Williams as captain.

This game took the two-innings option with Mills’ captain Chris Nash winning the toss and electing to bowl first and last leaving the Development side to bat first and last.

Burrows opened with Josh Clough this week and, in a similar story to last week, Clough and Carl Hartmann went cheaply but both looked more comfortable and confident this week which is the purpose of the side.

Academy player Eddie Beard returned from his exploits with Cronkbourne last week, where he finished 55 not out, but he was run out for five.

Will Barnes fell quickly after leaving the lads in a tricky position at 46-4.

Sam Mills, the oldest player in the side at 18, joined Burrows and they consolidated the score before Burrows fell for 88 missing out narrowly on another hundred with the score on 124.

Mills and Kieran Cawte added 25 and seven and the innings finished on 144-9.

Union Mills’ reply was a solid one with Matthew Killip and Will Miller adding 86 for the first wicket before Killip fell for 17. Miller batted through for 68 not out with Carl Mellors assisting the scoring adding 25 as the Mills innings finished on 137-2, which was only seven short of the Development XI’s total.

Mills batted again straight after tea and struggled to find the same consistency second time around adding 114 to their first innings total with Stuart Mellors (24) and Carl Mellors (43) again scoring runs. This can be contributed to a much-improved bowling and fielding performance second time around from Burrows’s players.

A couple of changes in the batting order saw Beard open instead of Burrows with Barnes replacing Clough and they started well adding 63, with both looking far more comfortable second time around.

A couple more cheap wickets fell before Beard and Josh Clough saw the game out with three overs to spare, finishing on 108-3.

Results:

Ramsey (133/4) beat Finch Hill (51 all out). Ramsey win by 82 runs.

Development XI (144/9 & 108/3) beat Union Mills (137/2 & 114/9) by seven wickets.

Role of Honour:

Batting

George Burrows 88

Will Miller 68

Eddie Beard 58*

Grant Atchison 41

Bowling

Alexander Kneale 3-10