It was 2nd versus 3rd on Saturday as Kimberley Institute welcomed Cuckney to Newdigate Street; in another pulsating game Kimberley held on to claim the lion’s share of the points in a high-scoring draw. Sam Johnson’s 118 (101 balls, 15x4, 3x6) put Kimberley on course for a big total and four wickets from skipper Alex King helped to put the brakes on Cuckney's response.

The visitors asked Kimberley to bat first and at 36-2 in the 12th over with openers Jon Terry (13) and Neil Edwards (12) out to Luke Wood (1-35) and Lewis Bramley (2-51) respectively it was not looking good.

NPL player of the month Tom Rowe (31) and Johnson steadily rebuilt the innings with a stand of 46 and things seemed ominous for Cuckney as the partnership started to develop with both batsmen looking set for a big score; sadly Rowe was to miss out as, after pulling Luke Thomas (4-30) over the Pavilion onto Cuckney skipper Will Butler’s 4x4, he was caught trying to play the shot again and had to depart with the scoreboard reading 82-3 in the 21st over.

Dominic Brown (51) joined Johnson and as the pair guided Kimberley to 99-3 at drinks the game seemed finely poised. After the break though Kimberley took charge with the runs beginning to flow as the pair built a huge stand of 140 for the 4th wicket.

After keeping things relatively tight for the first half of the innings Cuckney’s bowlers started to give away runs like they were going out of fashion with the spinners Parkin and Hawley chucking the ball down the leg-side on several occasions to give away fifteen wides between them.

Of course the two batsmen were doing their bit with the ball flying to all parts and a steady stream of ones and twos pushing the run-rate up and a huge slog-sweep for six via Hawley took Johnson to his half-century off his 55th delivery in the 31st over. Hawley suffered the same treatment in his next, and final, over as Kimberley’s 150 came up in the 33rd over and all of a sudden 300 was on the cards.

Cuckney tried several different bowlers and it was the same result each time as Johnson put his foot down with Brown ticking over nicely too; the six overs bowled by Connor Smith and Dan Brown (not the author of the Da Vinci Code, although he probably couldn’t have done any worse!) going for 55.

Somewhat ironically it was via a boundary from his namesake that took Brown to his half-century off his 57th delivery and as the 40th over closed with Kimberley on 213-3 it seemed like Cuckney’s day was only going to get worse.

Butler brought himself into the attack and, whilst his two overs went for 22, the run-out that finally broke the partnership came in his first over. Having cracked two boundaries to take him to 96 Johnson drove to long-off and called his partner back for a 2nd run; what would have been a tight call was made into an easy decision when hesitation mid-run left Brown well short and the stand of 140 had to come to an unfortunate end with the score on 222 in the 41st over.

Putting the disappointment aside Johnson struck the first ball he faced in the next over for his twelfth boundary to take him to his 7th century for the 1st XI; a fantastic innings with runs scored in all areas including some lovely drives and several big sixes as Cuckney had no answer to a batsman in a dominant mood.

With Tom Collishaw (21*) clubbing a big six of his own the score moved onto 254 in the 45th over before Johnson’s invention got the better of him as he tried to flick ball down to fine-leg from outside off-stump and was bowled in the process by Thomas, departing to deserved applause.

Even with the centurion’s loss 300 still seemed on the cards for Kimberley, but Thomas and Bramley bowled the last six overs exceptionally well to limit the scoring and took three more wickets as the momentum ebbed away from Kimberley at the death. Their final total of 282-8 was good, but perhaps twenty short of where they should have been.

The visitors got off to flyer in response as Hawley (53) and Thomas (40) gave Cuckney the perfect start with 97 for the 1st wicket going at nearly six an over as Kimberley struggled to stop the boundaries in the early stages.

It was King’s 4th over that finally brought the breakthrough with Hawley caught at slip by Terry (his 100th fielding dismissal in the NPL!) and as so often one brought two - and three in this case as Rowe (1-42) struck next over. Keeper Pursehouse hitting a full toss up in the air with Brown underneath it and with Collishaw taking a sharp catch to see off Thomas in the ring Cuckey were 111-3 after 19 overs and needing to regroup.

Former Kimberley man Nick Langford (42) did this with Butler (45) with a stand of 86 that started slowly, but then began to hurt Kimberley as they too struggled to stem the runs and as the partnership grew the game tilted in Cuckney’s favour.

It was Chris Glover (2-61) who finally managed to prise the pair apart as Butler went for a big hit to the leg-side boundary, only to pick out Johnson who took an excellent catch to make it 197-4 in the 35th over.

King picked up Langford two overs later as the game shifted back towards Kimberley, Alex Aldred taking the catch to make it 206-5 and from a strong position Cuckney were now having to regroup once more with little time left in the game.

Three wickets in five overs seemed to have sealed the deal for Kimberley as Brown (18) was caught by Collishaw at slip off King, Hayes lbw to Glover and Bramley caught and bowled by George Bacon (2-67) to make it 234-8 after 45 overs. That left 49 needed off the last five with two wickets in hand.

Credit to Cuckney as they chose to still look for the win when other sides might have shut up shop; Smith (27*) hit some lusty blows in tandem with Parkin (10) to leave 20 required off the last two and Kimberley’s supporters were having their nerves shredded once more.

Up-stepped Brown to bowl an excellent 49th over that Cuckney could only manage four from and then he was in action again to take the catch to remove Parkin, sticking out one hand with panther like reflexes on the boundary to give Bacon his 2nd wicket and Kimberley the spoils as Smith did shut up shop for the final for balls.

During the game the news filtered through from Plumtree that the home side had score the 2nd lowest score in NPL history after being blown away for just 31 by Radcliffe and that meant that the 18pts Kimberley picked up moved them into top spot, by one point.