Wallen swashbuckles Griffins to quick win

GRIFFINS showed that they mean business in this year's Barclays Evening Division One by beating Chandlers by eight wickets at the KGV last night. The Jeremy Sharratt captained side have, for two seasons, fought tooth and nail to stay in the top flight. But things seem to be different this summer as, thanks to a couple of new signings, in particular Sher Khanagha, they now look like a side capable of picking up some big wins.

They restricted newly promoted Chandlers to 76 from 16 overs before comfortably knocking it off for the loss of two wickets. After the Cobo-Optimists wash-out the night before, it was the first game of the season in the top division.

'It was a fairly low key start to the season, but I'm always happy with a win,' said Sharratt.

'It's the first time that we've won our first game of the season in Division One, which is also nice. We've got a few new faces and our biggest problem now is trying to keep everyone happy.

'But it's a nice problem to have. For the first time we're looking at a mid-table finish and giving people a better game than we have done in the previous two seasons.'

Chandlers lost their best batsman and captain Dave Clark in the opening over when Khanagha caught him in the deep off the bowling of Mark Latter.

From there Chandlers' innings never really got going with only Simon Huxtable with 29 and young leg spinner Ben McVey with 15 getting into double figures.

In reply, Griffins' Damian Wallen played one of his typical swashbuckling innings as he plundered 36 not out to help see his side home.