Close but no cigar..... It all went down to the wire, but a double wicket maiden from Paul (playing for Bill Owen along with Tom) left Keith and Tom Blake with too much to do.

Our bowlers struggled a little against Bill's opening pair, but once an end was opened up we took wickets at regular intervals and restricted the visitors to 208 off their 40 overs. Special mention to Harvey and Ben who took two wickets each and Tom who recovered from a difficult spell to bowl very well at the death.

Tea by Mrs. Reed was as good as ever and fortified us for the reply.

Mike and Ben opened up but were parted early. Tricks never got into his stride and John found it difficult to score. We were up with the rate at 20 overs and needed less that 5 an over with 10 to go but lost too many wickets and despite some very clean hitting from Peter we fell just short.

Coben's Match is rightly famous (see http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/142092 if your education has been sadly lacking), but this win against a good Erratics XI should be forever known as Paul's Match for his outstanding performance. Denied a chance with the bat he took two catches, one a stunning effort looking into the setting sun, pulled off some some heroic fielding and delivered an excellent spell of bowling at the death. 

The total of 153 was a good one (though we missed Mike's target of 100 off the 1st 10 overs and a further 150 from the 2nd 10) with all the batsmen playing positively and with little regard for their wickets. Paul's two catches dismissed the Erratics' two most dangerous batsmen and from then on it was a matter of preventing the boundaries and a late flurry of wickets as the visitors sought to get on top of the ever climbing run rate.

Oh, and well done to Keith for the stumping, a very slick piece of work!