On Saturday the 6th July, the scene was set for a tantalisingly tight match against Minety and Northleach. The weather was slightly overcast but warm, and the track had been perfectly prepared with something in it for both bat and ball. Stand-in captain George Ford won the toss and opted to bat first.

Ford and Greg Buckle marched out into the middle and made an impressive start. Both seeing the ball well and dispatching the bad balls to the boundary. The first change bowlers found some favour in the pitch and Tony Gardener took the first of his eventual fifer. Ford was bowled for 20 after what looked like a promising start. John Morse then replaced him at the crease, but was quickly dismissed by a straight, full delivery from Gould.

Will Shelley took his guard and acted in support of Buckle, but Gardener proved to be a tricky customer with his back-of-a-length floating deliveries and was very difficult to get away. The next man to fall was Buckle, caught on the boundary after rightly going for a miss-placed delivery – an unfortunate end to a well-grounded innings of 33.

Bradley strolled into the middle and linked up well with Shelley – running well between the wickets and guiding the ball into space for singles and twos. A caught and bowled from Gould removed Bradley at a critical time, just when the two looked set. Lovatt attempted to play himself in, but a tactical bowling change brought Musto into the attack whose well aimed off-spin took both Lovatt and Yeates’ wickets in quick succession. On his hat trick, Musto gathered the field in close in order to intimidate the new batsman Jack Thomas, but sensible play from Thomas saw out the end of the over and a much-needed chat about tactics between Shelley and Thomas as AKCC were left in deep water on 94/6.

However, some mature batting, excellent running between the wickets and a level-headed partnership saw AKCC reach 173 with Shelley passing his half-century and Thomas playing a very competent supporting innings. Thomas was then bowled by a great delivery as the opening bowlers returned to the attack. Shortly, Shelley got a top edge and was caught behind, ending his innings on an excellent 90 runs. From here, a collapse saw the end of the innings in the 38th over for a total of 178.

After an excellent tea provided by Jack Thomas, AKCC went into the field confident but not complacent about defending their total. Into the attack came Tom Finnie and Chris Yeates. Great bowling from these two kept the batsmen quiet, and excellent fielding all round prevented too many boundaries being scored. Finnie’s bowling struck first, with an outstanding slip catch from Buckle, shortly followed by Yeates taking his man, helped by another excellent catch – this time from Morse in the covers.

A worrying partnership between opener Wellman and Number 4 batsman Gardener saw Minety and Northleach press on towards the total. Lovatt and Ed Brown bowled well to keep these two in check, and eventually Brown was rewarded with the wicket of Wellman who played a great innings for 57. Thomas was called up to bowl some off-spin and once again managed to pin the batsmen in their creases and stifle the run-rate, also picking up a middle-order wicket to add extra pressure to the M&N line-up. With Finnie and Lovatt back into the attack, danger-man Gardener was clean-bowled just before his half-century by an excellent fiery delivery from The Mighty Finn.

The batting demise was compounded by the catch of the season on the boundary off Finnie’s bowling by Anton Lovatt – a sumptuous one-handed diving grab to his right. Great death-bowling, a 1-over bowling cameo from Buckle and excellent tight-fielding saw AKCC get over the line, winning by just 8 runs.

As one of the tightest matches played this season, credit must go AKCC for their all-round team effort, supporting their bowlers in the field, and some sensible batting!