Another hot and sunny early Saturday afternoon greeted the teams as they arrived in good time at Boyes Lane. Rain all day on Friday and an early morning shower had left the groundsman very little time to prepare a belter of a track, but to the delight of everyone the game was on !

Colden Common and Otterbourne skipper Darren Jacobs won the toss and again elected to field first, good habits are hard to get out of ! The side had been forced into a last minute change when young Alex Lush withdrew through illness, he was replaced by the evergreen Richie Stevens who was thrilled to be playing in the same side as his son once again.
Hartley Wintneys first wicket fell in the opening over when Darren Jacobs had Meakin well caught by Ant Palmier. Opener Prodger held the visitors innings together with a hard worked 30 as wickets tumbled at the other end. Archie Dunn took a bit of stick in his first couple of overs, but listened to the elder statesmen and changed his approach, to be rewarded with an 8 over spell of 1-22. The backbone of the Commoners bowling this week was Ben Watts who turned the ball miles and was almost unplayable. Ben returned figures of 8-4-11-5, a superb effort. Steve Paul wrapped up the Hartley innings with two wickets.
Earlier, Nigel Champion became the first CCOCC bowler to be removed from the attack due to sending down two full bungers, falling foul of the new ECB law.
The ground fielding was first class by the home side and that was backed up by every catching opportunity being taken. Ant Palmier took four outfield catches and Jamie Watts's one handed effort to close the innings probably was the pick of the bunch.

As the Hartley innings finished early at 89 all out, the captains agreed that we'd play on and take tea later.

Nigel Champion and Steve Paul once again opened up for CCOCC and were soon back in the hutch having both fallen for 4. Lee Stevens (34no) steadied the ship as the home sides wickets tumbled. The Watts brothers both, unusually, failed and Palmier cracked a hard hit 17 before he too fell. Skipper Jacobs also lost his wicket cheaply, but Stevens and John Frankham edged the home side to victory in the 19th over.
Hartley Wintney battled strongly, their fielding too was excellent and a couple of their catches were crackers too, but in the end a tight game ended in Colden Common a Otterbournes favour as they reached 90-6 to win.
An excellent post match tea was taken ( thanks very much again to Simons mum ) before Hartley Wintney headed home and the host team headed for a celebratory beer.

The game was played in superb spirit by both sides, a credit to the respective clubs. Let's hope that all the games are played as sportingly throughout the season. It was a real pleasure to umpire the game.

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