Drayton v Barney 8th July 2007

Barney 32 Drayton 36-6 A quite extraordinary game was played on a rare sunny day thie year at Drayton Rec. Drayton bowled first on a pitch with little bounce and after Matt Bourne's opening over, which saw three wides and a no ball there was no indication of what was to follow. Jason Trett picked up the first wicket with the last ball of his second over - Bourne then followed suit with the first and last balls of his next over. Barney captain J. Clarke looked to counter attack crunching Trett for two fours through the offside, however he was removed in Trett's fourth over with the score on 17. It was a further four overs before Drayton struck again - Trett removed the ever dangerous R. Warren with the score on 30. Thereafter the remaining 5 wickets fell for the addition of just 2 runs - Bourne picking up a triple wicket maiden amongst the carnage. Final bowling figures were Jason Trett 7.1-3-15-5 (all five wickets bowled) and Matt Bourne 7-3-14-5 (four bowled and one lbw).

When Ibby Badat struck a four off the first ball of the third over of Drayton's reply to get the scoreboard moving there seemed no danger to Drayton cruising to a comfortable victory. However, just as their top order folded at Sandringham to leave them 7-5, this time six wickets fell in a crazy four over spell to leave them 7-6. Badat was dismissed the ball after hitting his boundary and Tony Gregory, Warren Kedge, Stuart Bowes, Sam Giacomelli and Philip Wright were all removed without scoring (to join the six Barney players who made ducks). Just as double figures seemed a distant target for Drayton, the wisened heads of Tim Woods and Saul Simpson calmed things down and adopted a sensible approach, eventually moving Drayton to victory in the 15th over. Congratulations to Barney's opening bowler P. Codling on taking a hat-trick whilst hungover.