Great Win For Fourth Team

We dug in and after losing our openers John Graham and Krishna Mohan built some momentum.

Mohan fell to a great catch on 45 and wickets fell regularly to leave us 137-7 in the 35th over.

Captain Grout with a useful unbeaten 22 and young Ben Bezani with an excellent 45 not out put on 75 to take the Fourth Team to an unlikely 212-7 off 45 overs. Bezani showed great maturity in his innings to give our team a competitive total.

This was looking less competitive after 20 overs when the Stoke Green top four who all looked very useful got them to 130-2 . We had bowled well with Finlay Wade taking a wicket on his men's debut but were definitely in trouble.

Time for the old boys to get involved , Grout and Graham started taking wickets despite chances going down and doubt crept into the batting side. Joe Maggs was having a brilliant game behind the stumps and suddenly Stoke Green were nine down.

A very vocal balcony had turned their attention to over the hedge and that always inspires us. But they were 211-9 with five overs to go and their experienced keeper was batting with a young lad.

They decided to go for a risky single to Steve Wale, our best fielder, a great stop and return and Maggs whipped off the bails to give us a one run victory.

Absolute scenes with one of the best celebrations seen for a long time. Full credit to Stoke Green as well for playing their part in a magnificent game. Captain Grout finished with 4-33 and Graham with 3-46 got the wickets but this was a great team effort from all involved.