After winning the toss there was little hesitation in asking the home side to bat first despite the prospect of the setting sun later in the day. Stu and Darren opened up with a particularly mean spell but wickets did not come easily until Darren and Jack cooked up a "slow ball" plan to have opener Whiting caught at mid-off. Danny replaced Stu bowling quick and full as usual extracting the other opener, which opened an end from which regular wickets were to fall. Ray found the going tough against Mays but was able to take three middle order wickets including a catch by Vinnie at gully that followed two 'juggles' from Simon at first slip. The tiny boundaries and slow nature of the wicket made things very difficult for Tony who was replaced by Stuart doing the job of stopping the big hitting Mays for 88 thanks to a diving catch by Simon. The final overs were bowled by Dave and Tony both taking wickets and keeping the scoring under control until the last over. The Totham score of 175 was more than we might have conceded but well within sight.
The reply was slow to get going but once Simon got settled the run rate soon recovered and Vinnie contributed to a stand of 86 that laid the platform for victory. Both openers fell in consecutive overs but Danny took up the reins well supported by Jack and then Darren. Darren's innings was particularly entertaining, including a couple of great sixes. The chase was well paced to the end leaving a couple of overs in hand.
The eagerly awaited PDQ results finally came through showing some 'interesting' results across the leagues but of most interest was the victory of Ardleigh over Boxted. This means that none of the chasing pack can exceed our worst possible average and we are therefore CHAMPIONS of DIVISION 2!
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