Our biannual rivalry with Stoke Druid was renewed on this glorious evening at Golden Hill. HOB won the toss and elected to bat.

SJ Smith and Fillingham opened the batting and were reminiscent in style to the Slater and Taylor Australian top order. Fillingham suring up one end up, trying to grind out some kind of form, whilst Smith proved effective as the 'dasher' clobbering 8 fours in his knock of 46. An opening partnership of 68 lay the platform of what should have been a mammoth total. Zographou and Lambshead were next to join Fillingham in the middle but failed to play the Pietersonesque innings that was required, each trundling off with 3 to there name. Sarjeant (P) batting in his uncustomary position of No 5 played a cameo innings of 13, with one glorious shot through square leg (yes through the leg side - unbelievable!). Fillingham ended unbeaten on 39, and with hitting just two fours, it is fair to say he was somewhat out of breath!

We should always be fairly confident in defending a total of 120 with our bowling attack and this time proved no exception. Our reliable opening bowlers of Barrett and JS Smith proved as effective as ever in giving little away. Stoke Druid knew that if they were to make any headway, our so called 2nd string bowlers would have to be dispatched. However, Thomas and SJ Smith proved more than a match, in picking up 3 and 4 wickets respectively. Our 'Golden Arm' waded in with the other wicket, as they finished up on 93 for the loss of 8 wickets.

All round it was a fairly 'comfortable' performance from the HOBs, you could say that we were playing well within ourselves. Man of the Match was unquestionably the skipper SJ Smith for top scoring with the bat and returning his best ever figures of 4-8.