An early start was the order of the day as HOBs made their way to a ground with dimensions akin to that of a pool table, for a heady mix of cricket, food and football. The weather had turned after heavy rain had ruined much of the early season, and HOBs arrived to find a ground bathed in glorious evening sunshine. In the Old Boy ranks there was a debut for Sam Lambshead, and a last minute call up for Andy Burnell, maintaining his record of one appearance a season.

HOBs won the toss and elected to bat, although the Conservatives were missing a few players and in the spirit of sportsmanship, SJ Smith relented and took the field instead - allowing the opposition first use of the pitch. HOBs new ball bowlers - Barrett and JS Smith - bowled exceptionally well, the latter capturing two early wickets as Fishponds found the going tough on a slow, and very low pitch. Zographou held an excellent steepling catch of Jon for the second wicket, and SJ Smith, replacing his brother, kept the pressure up with some tight bowling. Ashford replaced Anth and promptly produced his finest bowling display for the Old Boys, capturing a fine wicket with a stumping from Fillingham.

Despite continued tight bowling from Ashford and Davies, their number 3 was getting his eye in, and by the closing overs of the Conservatives innings, he was seeing it like a football. SJ Smith tried to manipulate the field to keep him off strike, but with limited success, and towards the end all of the bowlers suffered as he made excellent use of the short boundaries taking him to an excellent half century. HOBs were left to rue a few difficult dropped chances. On the flipside, there was some excellent fielding, with run outs from Zographou and Burnell, and some fine stops. All in all the Old Boys were pretty satisfied to have restricted Fishponds to 108 on such a small pitch, if not slightly bamboozled by quite how they had managed to rack up so many runs - but more on that later…

108 is not such a daunting target, but experienced HOBbers knew that it would be a tough chase, especially with our poor effort last time out on the ground. Serjeant and Zographou opened the batting and indulged the onlooking HOBs in some powerful hitting, before Niko dawdled an easy single and was run out. Clements joined Phil at the crease and struck two beautiful boundaries before they both perished in similar fashion, bowled on the slow wicket. At this stage, after a fast-scoring start, the Old Boys got their customary jitters. Lambshead came in next and looked confident before nicking behind, while Burnell hit some fine boundaries in his 14. When Burnell departed however, with the Old Boys still only half way towards their total, and with five wickets down, they still had it all to do. The Smith brothers were up next - we'll ignore the second-ball Fillingham duck which they sandwiched - and combined to steady the ship for a while, Jo with some nudging and nurdling and Jon with some lovely boundaries. However, when Jon got bowled playing across the line for 20, the HOBs were left needing about eight an over with just three batsmen to come. SJ Smith attempted to hit out at this stage to retrieve the situation, while Davies played himself in at the other end, and when Jo hit a timely four in the penultimate over, with only a run a ball required, it looked like plain sailing.

It's never plain sailing at HOBs though. Jo let his desire to win the match as quickly as possible (ego) get the better of him, took a wild swipe having advanced halfway down the pitch and was bowled for 24. Not the best of shots really. It all boiled down to the last over, 4 required and two wickets left. The upshot is that Ed tried to finish it in one lusty blow, but picked out a man and was caught on the boundary. Oh dear, last pair at the crease, 3 required, oh dear, 3 off 3, yeah! Anth hits a couple. The scores tied, Ashford to face his first ball, the last ball of the innings, one needed. He's bowled, and the match is tied. Or is it?

Now this was a great game, played in a good spirit, good quality cricket, some fine moments and with a worthy man of the match in Jon Smith. But I did mention earlier that some of the HOBs were slightly miffed at the Fishponds total. Well, it turns out that Fishponds were somewhat remedial in their arithmetic. You see, having totted it all up the following day, HOBs have discovered that we shouldn't have been chasing 108, but really somewhere between 95 and 101, depending on your degree of generosity. Either way, a tie it was not. It was however, still a great game, and one it seems, we won after all………