Exiles suffered their 3rd straight loss at the start of the 2014 season following an 87 run defeat against Agricola.

After a couple of new ball strikes from Andy Wingfield (2 for 11), a superb partnership of 123 from Agricola’s Mike Almond (46) and Russell Joynt (a hard hit 82) put their team in a very strong position before 4 fine strikes on debut from Al Shelley (4 for 49) got the Exiles back in the game, and some excellent spin from Chris Plume (3 for 8) finished off the Agricola innings for 173, with over 4 overs unused, the last 8 wickets falling for 30 runs.

The Exiles reply started off disastrously and barely got any better. Captain John Tither fell second ball as 3 quick strikes from Dan Gauntlett and an important one from Andy Dugdale quickly saw the Exiles 4 for 4. Jasper Searle (20) and Wingfield (17) then worked hard adding 41 runs in 15 overs as the Exiles looked to get back in the chase, but once they both fell in quick succession, only some late hitting saw the Exiles get within a hundred.

Exiles are off to the races at Ascot next week looking to kick-start their season.