A grand day at home for HOB! There were a lot of familiar faces in the City Clarks squad and glances were exchanged. Although all went swimmingly, there was an air of 'pistols at dawn' right off the proverbial bat. Jon 'houdini' Smith won the toss and elected to field, strangely, as big guns Lambshead and Brown were absent. As the day panned out, however, the decision by el captain would choose to be inspired.

Warmington and the thinner Smith opened the bowling; Yes, the bowling... Two players more recognised for their accomplishments with the bat put leather to the grass. With a few ridiculous attempts by both HOB bowlers and a few easy runs on the board, the outlook looked grim. Then, Warmington, a pathetic bowler, by any stretch of the imagination tossed forth a looping, tantalising, and downright slogable ball, their big hitter, Betty latched on and sent it to the boundary. To his dismay, however, between him and the glory of 6, lay Phil 'glue hands' Serjeant. Phil caught the ball in dramatic fashion and hopes were raised. Warmington soon followed up with another unfamiliar wicket, which, alongside a lightning quick run out from the usually sleeping Trahar, and a slick catch from fatty Smith off of an Adam's delivery, made the match look very winnable. Hird proved to be the thorn in the HOB side and the wicket to get. Again, glue-hands stepped up off a delivery from Davis and proved his worth in the field! Davis went on to take two more wickets, the all-rounder making strides towards a potential player-of-the-season accolade. City Clerk' tail-enders stuck it out for the 20 overs, not withstanding a catch from the man with the biggest and hairiest hands this side of Athens, Niko, and HOB were ready for oranges.

HOB were left with 91 to chase; a difficult figure right on the cusp of the attainable and the not. At this point in the season, HOB had scored, 88, 81, 94, 81, 98, 131, 102, 124, and 111, three under and 6 over the mark. With Brown missing, equally as handy with a bat as he is with a ball, it could have gone either way. Glue-hands-Serjeant and inter-sport teammate, Burnell were first to bat, in the third uncharacteristic decision by the captain. Both players were looking tack-sharp and feeding off their intrinsic sporting knowledge of one-another. Unfortunately, Serjeant likes boundaries, both as fielder and as a batter and in one unlucky swipe, missed the ball and the bails fell. The Captain replaced Serjeant and fired up a great partnership with Burnell, In fact, so graceful was the partnership; one might have concluded that it continued off the field!? Both players love to hit off the leg side, and with Jon being a lefty, they tore open both sides of the field. Smith and Burnell collectively earned 44 runs and laid the foundations for victory. Burnell stuck it out and was helped along with a very handy 20 from Adams and 14 from Davis. With safe conservative and wise batting towards the end, HOB were victorious, beating City Clerks with just under 2 overs to spare.

Electing to field first, with a damaged bowling line-up, having Warmington and Smith open, and putting Burnell and Sergent first to bat, were all questioned and risky moves for our captain. However, whether luck, fate or genius, this was a captain's day, with Smith stamping his authority as captain of the prestigious Henleaze Old Boys Cricket Club.