St Paul's started their Gillette Cup quest Monday 24th March against Bethlehem College. The tournament was played on very low, slow, dry and dusty wickets heavily suited to spin bowling which really didn’t suit St Paul's. Eli Spadoni was brought in late to replace the ill Aditya Sakalkale and Reed Fisher replaced Reuben Andrews for the first game who had wrenched his knee at PE and had suffered very heavy bruising.
After a poor start St Paul's recovered from 2 for 17 through Kippa Fawcett 35 and Chris Swanson 50. Swanson survived being bowled off a no ball early in his innings, before Alastair Blackett showed his class after a lean run to make 53. However from 139 for 3 St Paul's suffered a dramatic collapse to be bowled out for 195.
At 29 without loss Bethlehem were looking good but the introduction of spin with debutante Eli Spadoni 4 for 7, Bede Higgens 2 for 12 and Tom Harsant 1 for 0 completely bamboozled Bethlehem who were rolled for 57.
