What a match this turned out to be. For a start, Rob won the toss for the first time this season.

Shipton were put in to bat and reached 45-2 from the first 15 overs. There was then an uncharacteristic 8 over period where our bowling and fielding was sleepy and we allowed Shipton to rack up another 60 runs. Alex Bellenie then bowled an excellent spell (13-4-32-3) backed up by Fin Wightman and Ed Owens. Shipton finished their innings with a flurry of boundaries to end 212-9 from 45 overs. We all felt this would be a tough target and we quickly found ourselves 22-4 after 10 overs. Dave Spilsbury counter-attacked with one 6 and eight 4’s in his 49 and was joined by Alex Bellenie who took over and batted really well, also making 49 (including 9 4’s) and sharing an 8th wicket stand of 40 with Ed Owens. With the score 136-8, the focus was on one batting point at a time. Alex was 9th man out at 154. Fin Wightman then joined Rob Owen at the crease and this pair continued to accumulate runs at a steady rate. As our score passed 190 the Shipton players started getting a bit twitchy, then past 200 and up to 210. We entered the final over needing three to win. Fin hit the first ball to long on and we ran two to bring the scores level. Second ball was a dot. Fin was then unfortunate to be caught at slip for an excellent 17, with Rob 44no. The match ended in a tie, with 18 points for each side.