St. Mary’s lost out in the ultimate thriller to Sherfield on Loddon.  Things started off badly losing the toss on an ideal bowling pitch, but the opening stand between Tom Lee and Tim Sanders dispelled any initial concerns caused by losing the toss.  Tom & Tim put on 83 in difficult batting conditions before Tim was well caught just past the midway point of the innings.  At this point some accurate Sherfield bowling was making batting very slow and difficult and after Tim’s dismissal it was difficult to up the pace of the innings.  Stuart Macnaghten managed to add a quick 31 before being bowled.  Tom Lee was next out for a fantastic 59 with the score on 150.  Eventually the last frantic thrash left us at 160 for 6.

In reply Sherfield were quickly in trouble with the accurate bowling of Dan Vickery and Keith Waldock.  Dan was particularly dangerous dismissing one of the Sherfield openers in the first over and the other opener a few overs later.  Ian Bentley in his first match for St. Mary’s took over from Keith and bowled beautifully.  By now the pitch was drying out and getting better for batting but runs were coming very slowly for Sherfield.  At the half way point Sherfield were at 67 for 3 as opposed to St. Mary’s 81 for 0.  But Sherfield were much better at accelerating the scoring than St. Mary’s, but the tension rose as regular wickets fell as the target approached.  Eventually Sherfield entered the last over needing just 4 runs to win but with the last wicket pair at the wicket.  Unfortunately at 2 off the third ball of the over took the scores level, then a Chinese cut just missed the Sherfield’s number 11s leg stump to see them to the narrowest of victories with just one wicket and one ball to spare.

Click here for photos from the match

Team:

1. Tim Sanders
2. Tom Lee
3. Ian Scanlon
4. Stuart MacNaghten
5. Rupert Webster
6. Phil Whitfield
7. Ed Thompson
8. Michael Scanlon
9. Ian Bentley
10. Dan Vickery
11. Keith Waldock