James won the toss at the beautiful Donnington ground and on yet another warm but cloudy day chose to bat first.

The pitch was reputed to play like Newfound and in early exchanges it proved to be true, Jambo & Russell opening battled through this uneven bounce to move to 62 in the 13th over before Russell was bowled, in the next over Jambo fell in the same manner, but Jambo & Russell had put together a good foundation. This brought Seb Breadmore and Sam Paulose into bat together and they batted cautiously but regularly put away the bad ball, Seb fell just after drinks with a very good 14 to his name, this brought Andy Wade into to accompany Sam our last recognised batsman. Together they built their innings and then increasingly took the attack to Donnington with first Sam passing his 50 and then his 100 and Andy passing 50 as runs piled up with Sam and Andy putting on an undefeated 133 partnership in 16 and a bit overs, really impressive and setting a new fourth wicket partnership record for St. Mary’s.

With 261 on the board St. Mary’s were confident as they strode out onto the square for the Donnington innings to begin. A solid start by Donnington saw them move to 23 before Saruabh had one opener bowled. This brought Noel Williams into partner Dai Maddocks and they ripped into the St. Mary’s bowling reaching 108 in the 15th over when Keith had the Donnington skipper Maddocks out LBW. Phil Whitfield picked up two wickets in an over soon after but the dangerous Williams was continuing to score freely. At drinks Donnington were ahead but only just if Williams stayed in then Donnington looked like they would romp home, in the 26th over the key wicket fell as Dan took a very good catch off Sam’s bowling to dismiss Williams and increase St.Mary’s hopes of victory. Yogesh then took a wicket in the next over to bring hope to St.Mary’s for the first time of victory. Overs ticked by, the run rate required started increasing from 5 to 6 then 7 and the reintroduction of the old timers Waldock & Whitfield (115 years between them) saw wickets falling and the run rate increasing. But still it just needed one good over for Donnington to see victory. In the end two very good stumpings from Russell saw St. Mary’s achieve a very good victory and a rare victory in a tight finish.

Thanks to Donnington for being such a great bunch of players and providing a very good tea and beers after the match.

Man of the match: Sam Paulose for his 125 not out followed by his very good bowling.
Champagne moment: Russell’s fine stumping knocking the off stump out of the ground to win the match.