After a recent spate of abandoned matches, the weather finally held for a quick thrash at the picturesque venue of Blaise Castle. Jo was again unlucky with the coin and lost the toss, United Banks deciding to bat first.

HOBs, who were a man short, immediately went on the offensive with JS Smith and AR Barrett opening the bowling on what proved to be a very slow pitch, with the United Banks opening pair struggling to get it off the square, even with the gentle slope down to the pavilion boundary. Of course the tight bowling performance also had a part to play in the first few over's passing without a run being scored. When United Banks finally decided to attempt a run, it quickly descended into carnage with some quick hands in the field seeing the end of their opening partnership with a run out by SH Lambshead.

It was looking like it was going to be a walk in the park (quite literally) for HOBs and so Jo decided to mix the bowling attack up a bit, bringing on SH Lambshead and JPS Osmond. Lambshead came through with a wicket ending his spell on 17-1, while Osmond plugged away, ending on 21 from his 3 overs. After two weeks sunning in the Mediterranean, LJ Caller stopped talking to Matt Clements (who had turned up dressed like Lance Armstrong to offer some much needed support) and delivered 2 overs to no effect. The best bowling performance however came from SJ Adams who teased the middle order youngsters to chalk up two further wickets for HOBs at the expense of just 2 runs, nice one Stu.

In the end United Banks put on a respectable 91 for 8, so with the light fading fast and the Henbury massive lurking in the bushes, HOBs took to the slope with AM Fillingham and AR Barrett kicking off the response.

As suspected, the wicket was slow and runs were difficult to create but after the early demise of Barrett, Fillingham stood strong and saw off 30 before his demise late in the game. A special mention to Jo, who after promising a slog fest, walked out to the middle, only to turn around and walk straight back again one ball later. The less said about that one the better! Unperturbed, WH Thomas put his public schooling to good use and hit a mighty fine 44 not out, a performance which later saw him voted man of the match.

This was a tough game that could have easily gone the other way, but in the end it was another convincing win for HOBs