Stoke D’Abernon 206 for 8 (40 overs)
Sheen Park 195 for 8 (40 overs)
Stoke D’Abernon won by 11 Runs

Sheen Park made a welcome return to the Stoke D’Abernon Rec after a year’s absence and were seemingly cruising to victory at the drinks break, (120 for 1 chasing 207 to win), having posted an opening stand of 109 in just 16 overs; but were unable to withstand a great fightback and eventually fell eleven runs short of Stoke’s total.

Stoke batted first and an unlikely combination of late call up Nick Andrew and Birthday Boy Adrian Mills opened the batting. Andrew hit a single off the first ball of the match, then followed up with a sweet cover drive for four off Walker in the second over, but he was bowled by Walker with no addition before its conclusion. Walker took a second wicket when Mills, who had earlier caressed an exquisite drive through the covers for four to open his account, was caught behind for 8 the ball after doubling his tally.

At the other end tall paceman Valentine managed to get a few deliveries to rise sharply out of the damp pitch but Sonny Cott and Dom Morley weathered the storm, and batted through a brief shower to build a partnership of 74 that spanned the drinks break. Walker bowled his entire allocation in one spell, returning figures of 8-1-42-2; figures that would have been a lot better had a number of chances not gone to ground.

Cott and Morley did well to get themselves in in testing conditions and were rewarded for their patience as the change bowlers gave them more to hit. Both were dismissed in successive overs; Cott the first of the pair to depart for 47 from 45 balls faced when he was bowled by Murdhanya. Morley had reached 30 when he was bowled by Guthrie.

Jeremy Connell and Tom Frost kept the scoreboard ticking over. Connell struck a nice six and three fours in a 23-ball knock of 25 that came to an end when he was bowled by Nazir. Debutant Harry Oliphant departed soon after but Frost and Raimondo, both the worse for wear after adding pre-match Asahi to their previous night’s – and matchday morning’s – consumption moved the total past the 150-mark.

Frost hit two sixes, the second of which lodged in the fence at the Blundell Land end necessitating a replacement nut; and reached 35 when he edged the returning Valentine to Mercer behind the timbers. Raimondo, (11), hit a return catch to the same bowler giving cause to fear that Stoke wouldn’t bat their overs yet again; but these fears were alleviated as debutant Dan Gluckman struck the ball cleanly with genuine cricket shots rather than agricultural ones, and walked off unbeaten 34 from just 21 balls faced to close the innings on 206 for 8.

After one of Jayne’s mega teas, boosted by cakes supplied by friends of the Birthday Boy; Stoke would have been confident of defending a total on a pitch that was juiced up by a few more spots of rain.

However they could not have foreseen the shambolic opening fifteen overs that contained the full suite of errors. Dropped chances, (two of them resulting in boundaries), mis-fields, overthrows, fielders not walking in or backing up and a few ambitious field placements allowed Valentine and Guthrie to post a rapid century opening stand.

The drinks break couldn’t come quickly enough and Raimondo called for a re-focus at the huddle, looking to his senior players to take the lead which they did. Mills bowled good areas and dried the runs up. He deserved better than his final figures of 8-0-31-1 – but his entry in the fourth column was the first wicket of the innings when Guthrie, (51), holed out in the deep to Raimondo the ball after completing his half-century trying to add to his three sixes and six fours.

Raimondo had also brought himself into the attack and after tying down No.3 D.Read to push the asking rate back to something like the original; he found an edge that was clung on to by Connell standing up.

Valentine batted nursing a hand injury sustained in the field and dealt mostly in boundaries as a result. Three of his fours were chinese cuts off Ralph Coleman, but the bowler would have his revenge when castling him for 51. 137 for 3.

Still ahead of the rate and with wickets in hand Nazir and Middlesex county youth product Erasmus built another partnership of 43 to edge the visitors nearer the line; but Raimondo, (2-37), struck again when taking a return catch over his head to account for Nazir, whose 33 used up more balls that his team would have liked. A lot of this was due to Alex Bond whose comeback spell of five overs went for just 19 runs.

So the equation, (27 runs from six overs with six wickets in hand), was still in Sheen Park’s favour; but the more focused and more vocal fielding unit continued to apply the pressure. Frost was one to give the lead with some good stops on the circle, and one of them accounted for M.Read who was run out after a great diving stop and a return to Coleman at the bowler’s end. In the same over Murdhanya lost his middle stump and panic started to set in when Walker was beaten by a great throw from the deep from Cott to Connell in the next.

Amidst the chaos, at the other end No.5 Erasmus continued to run the ball around nicely and showed a lot of promise, but clever field placements meant that he, nor any of the batsmen after him hit a boundary. Having reached 20 and with just the tail left, he went for the big shot only to drag Coleman’s penultimate delivery on to his stumps. Next ball Cunningham slashed to backward point where Oliphant held a great catch to give Coleman his best figures of the season, 8-2-19-4; his last six overs yielded just six runs.

Oliphant had returned for the death overs at the Railway end and didn’t disappoint his captain or his team-mates. He bowled to his field, and although his final figures looked pricey he can be very pleased with his contribution and demeanour in the field throughout; his final over going for just six runs from the last pair which meant Stoke had completed their comeback to win by eleven runs.

Not quite an ‘Old Hamptonians’ but once again Stoke had pulled off the improbable; and the younger players in particular, who all made a great contribution to the win and showed good attitude throughout, will have a great learning experience of how to force a win from a seemingly unlikely position to commit to memory.

A healthy contribution to the bar takings was made after the match by a very sociable opposition, and the sides vowed to ink this fixture in again next year.

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