looked a good toss to win and put the oppo in

With Brian Dunbar rumbling down the hill, and Will Clifton pounding in up it Parish Church were immediately under pressure and finding runs hard to come by, a chance wasn’t long in coming as Ronnie Scott mistimed a cut and floated a catching practice gimme to Stelfox who inexplicably put the chance down.

Fortunately the miss wasn’t to prove costly, Ifty replaced Dunbar after 6 tight overs, and as he often does Ifty provided the breakthrough as the prolic Scott Battle skied one, and in a scene reminiscent of one man and his dog, Brian Dunbar was shepherded under the ball and his bucket hands did the rest, Scott offered Stelfox a reprieve shortly after by performing a similar shot, and with plenty of time to think about the dolly he’d just dropped Stelfox this time made no mistake.

Mark German followed his team mates back to the hutch for a duck falling to a good low catch at slip by Ifty Hussain off Clifton and Edwards and Lawson followed quickly after for 2 and 4 respectively falling again to catches by Manton and Dunbar off Ifty and Clifton.

Parish Church looked firmly on the back foot at this point, but they started to show their spirit, which was to remain evident for the rest of the afternoon, GPC skipper Gaz Street came to the wicket and took the attack to HCC, well backed up by a few of his team, Andy Hay stuck around for 12 before being caught behind by Steve Manton off Ben Glynn, Street was starting to pepper the boundary as GPC moved towards a total that would give them a chance.

Hustwit departed for 8, again to the Glynn – Manton combo and then skipper Street fell, carving a loose one from Glynn soaring over deep backward point a back peddling Stelfox flung himself backwards and managed to clutch the ball left handed.

Burnie departed to Dunbar’s 3rd catch of the afternoon, this time off Gul, before Jordan Scott and Mortimer batted sensibly to see GPC through to 120-9

Mark Stelfox and Steve Manton opened the batting for HCC and made a reasonable start, Stelfox clattering 3 good 4s before picking Jordan Scott off his legs again, only to see McBurnie take a superb running catch on the boundary, Matt Frosdick fell for 2 and Dan Fletcher fell for a duck, Steve Manton was unlucky to fall to the best catch I’ve seen this season when a well timed pull shot was brilliantly taken by a diving McBurnie and square leg, suddenly HCC had slid from 23-0 to 28-4.

The quality of the fielding and quickness of the wickets gave the GPCCC team a huge boost and the incoming batsmen were to enjoy an unrelenting stream of chat as the hosts sensed they were in with a real chance.

Gul Hussein inevitably took the attack back to GPCCC which did nothing to quieten the opposition, but his quick fire 32 undoubtedly swung the momentum back in HCC’s favour, Gul holed out on the boundary going for another maximum and the home team were buzzing again, Nick Saunders was sensibly shoring up one end as Ifty banged a quick 16, and then Brian Dunbar joined Saunders at the wicket with 35 still required.

By the time drinks came HCC needed just 20 to win, GPCCC skipper took the break as an opportunity to issue the rallying cry to his troops, pointing out that 20 runs was a long way away, on this occasion that proved to be untrue as Edwards served up 3 very bangable balls to Brian Dunbar which he duly despatched for 18 and the game was nearly over, with only a couple of nurdled singles needed to see HCC home to victory.

Special mentions to Will Clifton looking in great nick with the ball, and Gul, Bruce and Nick for their knocks with the bat