A warm and sunny day greeted Fairlands - a happy contrast to last years fixture played in the pouring rain. It was Fairlands last game of the season, so, maintaining his form of the season, Andy Kassell lost the toss and Wood Street decided to bat.

David Mehta and Jacques de Wouters opened the attack against Jamie Grist and Keenan Williams. In the sixth over Jacques deservedly had Jamie edging to Mark Dickens. This brought Tom Williams out to join his son. Tom was obviously very rusty and could not get Jacques or Dhaivat away. When Hemant replaced Dhaivat he had Tom caught by Martand at mid on. Dougal Chudleigh joined Keenan and together they moved the score on to 62 when Keenan was bowled by Hemant Rathod. Vikram replaced Jacques de Wouters and Dougal Chudleigh and Liam Binfield were immediately on the attack, but Dhaivat Mehta took a tumbling catch at deep square leg to remove Dougal and Vikram had his revenge. Hemant bowled Raj and had Liam caught by Max Cooke to complete a tidy spell of bowling and take 4-29 off 8 overs.

Andy now turned to spin at both ends, by putting himself on. Vikram and he kept Will Gaff and veteran Adrian Binfield quiet. Binny was bowled by Vikram. His 8 overs had cost 41 runs for 2 wickets, somewhat marred by an over which cost 14 runs. Ciaran Colwill took over from Vikram and Wood Street in the form of Nat Webb and Will Gaff had a brief flurry. They were assisted in this by some less than spectacular fielding from Fairlands, with players not attacking the ball. Ciaran bowled Nat Webb and Finn Williams struck a mighty 6 off Andy Kassell, who still returned reasonable figures of 0-27 off 7 overs. Wood Street had posted 184 from 40 overs, which was well within the grasp of a strong Fairlands batting line-up.

Mark Dickens and Martand Singh opened the reply against an accurate Dan Grist and Dougal Chudleigh. They did not seem in any danger and scored at a very good tempo. However when the score was on 37 Mark missed a straight one from Dan Grist and was bowled. Dhaivat Mehta joined Martand and Dan Grist (5-1-4-1) was replaced by Nat Webb. Martand and Dhaivat produced a contrasting partnership - Martand with his forceful blows often over the top of he ring of fielders and Dhaivat with his drives all along the ground. It was a surprise when Dhaivat chipped a ball in the air and was snapped up at wide mid on. Martand and Nanda Kumar again seemed in no difficulty and Martand brought up his 50 and the pair moved on to 113 for 2. 62 more runs were required 14 overs remaining, and 8 wickets left.

What followed was the stuff of nightmares as Fairlands collapsed so spectacularly. This was reminiscent of Italian bridge construction, rather than a cricket team.

Martand was caught by Finn Williams off the bowling of Will Gaff, Hemant edged to Binny first ball off Will Gaff. Raj returned and had Max Cooke caught by Jamie Grist and Ciaran Colwill caught by Natt Webb. In the space of 12 balls Fairlands had gone from 113 for 2 to 116 for 6.

Jacques de Wouters struck some lusty blows and Nanda Kumar, who had been watching the disaster with a look of horror on his face fell LBW to Raj. Larry Kinsella making a welcome return to Fairlands after a long lay off then made a welcome return to the pavilion having tried to paddle Raj round the corner and lobbed it to Binny instead. Andy Kassell, batting at number 10 failed to pick up the ball in the gloom and was bowled by Raj. Vikram Setia and Jacques flourished briefly, but when Dan Grist returned Vikram could not resist a long hop and was caught by Liam Binfield.

Fairlands were all out for 138 in 32 overs 46 runs short of the target. Wood Street had fielded like tigers fighting for every run, but one cannot help feeling that Fairlands were the architects of their own downfall.

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