Aldborough v Drayton 11th August 2007

Drayton 118 Aldborough 119-7 With three regulars, including last week's centurion Andy Denny, missing, Drayton eventually went down fighting at Aldborough on a dusty wicket where 150 runs could well have been a winning score. Philip Wright (19) and Andy Hawes (17) made a bright start against Reeve and Dingle, punishing anything short and wide. Wright eventually got a shooter, which hit him low on the shin as he went to pull a short ball from Dingle. A highly-charged James Kay (15) entered and immediately went for his shots, cutting a couple of wide balls from Reeve to the point boundary. The bouncer length ball which hit James' shoulder only a couple of inches above stump height should have emphasized to Drayton that the bounce could be variable.

Apart from Michael Mario-Ghae (19) and Phil Soanes (18), Drayton's batting was unproductive, as they contrived to get themselves out in a range of weird ways. Two batsmen played on, Darren Flatt with the help, it seemed, of several parts of his body and just about all of his protective gear! Richard Taylor, became Barnard's second victim in consecutive balls by edging a good length ball, which popped, to gully from the shoulder of his bat. Barnard finished with 5-25.

After tea, Michael Mario-Ghee and Lee Cornfield showed the heart and accuracy they have shown all season, each clean-bowling an opener and raising Drayton spirits. Cornfield, who finished with 2-34, also had Fahy caught by captain Soanes soon afterwards, to further increase the pressure. One remarkable ball from Mario-Ghae took off, cleared Ed Pink's gloves as he leaped upwards, bounced once and disappeared for four byes.

For a while Botwright and Farrow, with a mixture of defence and pulled sixes (those houses on the uphill boundary do have toughened glass windows and some dense ground cover plants!), moved the score along. With the adrenaline flowing, Botwright was caught behind as he went to square cut a rare wider ball from Mario-Ghae, whose final figures were 2-28 from twelve overs.

Though Alborough had plenty of overs left, Bacon decided on his own form of attack, mostly aerial and largely leg-side, launching two sixes in his rapid 24. A third looked likely as he hit Daz Flatt high and handsome in the direction of Aldborough's former watering hole, The Red Lion. Gary Smith, just inside the long-on boundary, showed little urgency until he raised his left hand in a classic fruit-picker's mime and plucked a stunning catch, which kept Drayton well in the hunt. Flatt (3-37) also had Farrow and Robinson caught as they tried to hit their way to the 119 victory target.

At this point, Aldborough's Man of the Match by miles, Ashley Barnard, entered to play a sensible and match-winning innings, in the company of an almost strokeless Fahy. Singles were accumulated, false shots from the occasional bad bounce dropped harmlessly into space and Aldborough eventually got home in the thirty-third over.