Hartley hang on for draw

Given the week's weather, it came as no surprise to us that we were greeted by a soft pudding of a pitch which had been heavily rolled. That said, on winning the toss we batted.
Mikey and the Funnell brothers all perished by giving the Hartley fielders some catching practice whilst Stu demonstrated the patience needed on a slow wicket, combined with some tenacious fielding early on from our hosts.
Jason joined Stu and they put on about 80 to put us in a strong position.
Stu reached a well deserved fifty before finally becoming one of four batsmen caught by De Vries. Both Jason and Geoff hitting 40s to help us post a competitive 201.
Having avoided a cup of tea with salt (mistaken for sugar!) at tea, Hartley started slowly as both Del and Josh N beat the bat repeatedly without much luck until the Nakarja's combined, Baiju taking a smart catch low down at square leg.
The introduction of spin from Josh B and just very slow from yours truly, saw the Hartley batsmen taking differing approaches, some more successful than others.
Catches from Matthew, Jason, Mikey and Bomber (!!!!) saw Hartley subside to about 80 with three wickets left. A stubborn rearguard and a couple of dropped catches saw them clinging on eight down despite numerous bowling changes to try and tempt the tailenders into a mistake.
A draw being an improvement on our recent performances on the green.