The fixture was threatened both by heavy morning rain and the (most unusual) difficulty that our opponents had experienced in raising a side. We were however able to lend them Matt Wood and Jamie Will and the rain blew over earlier than we had feared, so the match could go ahead with only a minor delay. An 80-over win-lose-draw format was agreed.

Fielding first, we got off to an excellent start, with accurate bowling from Max Kidman and Matt Lawson reducing East Dean to 25/4. However Edwards at no.5 had already looked dangerous and was joined by Matt Wood who, despite (or perhaps because of) a certain amount of sledging, played sensibly to help stabilize the innings. Edwards was immediately dropped at square leg off Max and the unfortunate fielder, Rob Eastwood, then had to watch as Edwards dominated the rest of the innings, courtesy of two more lives. Matt Wood was eventually caught by Joe Gatford off a nicely-flighted delivery from Richard Beglan for 24, and no.7 Deller-Merricks followed soon after in identical fashion. Edwards, however, was by now in full flow, the highlight of his innings being two successive reverse sweeps off Simon Wood for boundaries, both strokes being so natural and effortless that a visitor from Mars would surely have been surprised to find the reverse sweep missing from the MCC coaching manual. Eventually Max and Matt came back on and Edwards was caught by Max off Matt for 99, Matt finishing with excellent figures of 4/20 from his eight overs.

In reply, we opened up with Steve Ford and Joe Gatford, but Steve fell to a quickish inswinger in the first over of the innings, bowled by Warracott, bringing Rob Eastwood to the crease. The next over was bowled by Ingless, purveying gentle away swing on a full length, but this was just tempting enough to induce suicidal strokes from Joe and Liam Geary off successive balls, Joe somehow reaching the widest of wides to spoon it to cover and Liam looping an attempted drive to mid-off, reducing us to two for three. A period of rebuilding followed, marred by a needless runout of Andy Bousfield, who had begun to play with confidence after a nervous start, but a bright 16 from Steve Bolland meant that at drinks after 20 overs we had reached 74/5 with Max having just joined a well-set Rob at the crease, and with hopes of victory far from extinguished. Unfortunately, another misjudgement soon sent Rob back to the pavilion, run out for 50, and the introduction of off-spinner Perry, who combined sharp turn with remorseless accuracy, then accounted for Max, who played on, cutting against the spin. We were reeling at 96/8 when Simon Wood came to the crease to join Matt Lawson with 13 overs remaining. Defeat seemed inevitable, but as the overs ticked by, hopes in the pavilion began to rise until Matt, surrounded by fielders drove Perry on the full to short cover .. but the catch was dropped, only for Matt to be yorked almost immediately afterwards. Could Richard Beglan help Simon to get through the last three overs? Indeed he could, so Simon was able to return to the pavilion triumphant with his gritty 4 not out. Perry was also deservedly applauded from the field for his remarkable analysis of 7-6-1-2.

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