Gawcott won the toss and, rather surprisingly, chose to bowl on a flat track, fast outfield and given Tows strong batting line up with a welcome return to Tows colours by Adam Kelly and Tony Roodt.

Openers Rob Jones and Tony Roodt began cautiously but soon hit their straps and began scoring freely. It was somewhat of a surprise when Jones was out, top-edging an attempted pull from Colin Piggott onto his head and lobbing a simple catch.

Roodt was joined by skipper Ollie Drage and they upped the scoring rate by punishing anything at all loose. Roodt played some big shots and Drage started to time the ball well. Together they took the Tows total to 100 from 17 overs. Drage was eventually caught off Piggott but not before compiling a confidence-boosting innings of 45.

Roodt’s power hitting was now complemented by Adam Kelly’s stylish stroke play and in the next 12 overs they moved the score to over 200. Roodt was eventually bowled for 65 playing an ugly lunge whilst attempting to a sweep.

Kelly continued to play positively against a tiring bowling attack and was supported, briefly, by Tom Sheppard and Michael Alcock, both dismissed playing over-aggressively against James Carlin.

David Roberts then joined Kelly and played a few airy wafts before settling. Kelly finally fell for an impressive 77 attempting a big hit of Piggott.

The final few overs of the Tows innings featured some strong hitting and idiosyncratic running by Roberts and youngster Charlie Mackaness. Mackaness was particularly severe on anything short. In 6 overs they added 47 runs as Tows posted a total of 272/6.

The target looked very tough for Gawcott and they got off to a terrible start when Dan Freeborough had Steve Yarrington well caught by Tom Sheppard at point.

When Steve Emerson trapped Tim Hawkes LBW and then bowled Matt Foakes, both without scoring and Freeborough followed up with Charlie Mackaness catching John Patterson for 7, Gawcott were in trouble at 22/4.

Gawcott then staged a bit of a comeback, led by Colin Piggott. He and Finley Lee took the score to 45 before Freeborough caught and bowled Lee for 10.

Freeborough (3/25 off 8 overs) and Emerson (2/40 off 8 overs) were now replaced. Both had excellent figures, clearly benefiting from an extended bowl.

The focus for the rest of the Gawcott innings was on an entertaining spell from Andy Roberts as he took the remaining five Gawcott wickets – two caught behind by Ollie Drage, one bowled and two catches by David Roberts (one easy, one sharp).

But without doubt the highlight was when Roberts stumbled in his delivery stride, failed to let go of the ball and finished face down on the bowling crease. His team mates were left as helpless as him. It’s not Roberts’ figures of 5/34 from 8 overs that will be remembered from this match but the ball he failed to deliver.

Colin Piggott’s effort of 45 together with Tony Amies 19 and a helpful 41 extras enabled Gawcott to reach 156 and maximum batting bonus points but this was an emphatic win for Tows.

Next Saturday Tows are at home to Helmdon.

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