It was good to welcome ‘old friends’ Ashorne CC again. They are one of the teams that Napton CC meet regularly, playing them not only on Sundays but also in mid-week evening T/20 matches.
Both teams had extra players on the list for this match so it was decided that fielders could be rotated to give all a chance of playing. It was also agreed to have a batting line-up of 12 batsmen.

Ashorne won the toss and elected to bat first.

Opening bowlers Mike and Sam wasted no time getting into the action.
In his first over Sam, via a catch by Mike, accounted for one of the visitor’s openers. In his third over he found an edge, neatly taken by Gloveman Graham, that dismissed opener number two and recorded a wicket-maiden.
Mike’s initial four-over session delivered remarkable figures. With 2 maidens and a wicket-maiden he not only clean-bowled batsman no. 4 but conceded just 1 run in the session leaving Ashorne on 16-3 after 7 overs.
A quick gather and return by Rory into Graham’s mitts for a run-out left the visitors on 18-4 after just 8 overs.
Wicket no.5 fell in the 15th for 44 runs.

Should the tea urn be switched on and the sandwiches prepared for an early tea??

However, Ashorne’s No.3 batsman was displaying a stubborn reluctance to return to the pavilion. When eventually partnered with his skipper this pair built up a useful partnership. It was eventually broken by a misunderstanding between the batsmen that left them both in the same half of the track at the same time. Easy run-out. 128-7. Game on !!
The visitors completed their allocated 40 overs with 172-10.

And so, to tea.
Pam and Jo, ably assisted by family members, provided a wonderful array of sandwiches and cakes that, coupled with the beautiful weather, epitomised village cricket and the important part the ‘Tea’ is to the whole afternoon.
This correspondent, falling to the old adage of ‘eyes too big for my belly’ consumed too many of the delicious sandwiches and could only manage one (large) slice of the jam and cream Victoria sponge-cake although the carrot cake looked tempting. A doggy-bag may be the answer !!!

The home-team talk during tea was that the target of 173 was gettable with the available batting line-up available.

Tom and Ollie opened for Napton but had both returned to the changing room by the 8th over with only 20 runs on the board.
The next three batsmen, Joe, Callum and Gary all hit a few boundaries and looked like building up decent scores; but they did not stay at the crease long. By the 19th over all three had been dismissed. 68-5.

Running out of recognised batters Napton needed a decent partnership to put them back in the game as the 173 target was beginning to look very ‘ungettable’.
Mike and Stuart provided that partnership.
They batted solidly from the 19th to the 38th over for a partnership of 92 runs.
Stuart was caught with the score at 160-6.
2.4 overs --- 16 balls, to add the required 13 runs for victory.
Graham joined Mike at the crease. He showed his intentions from the off. A boundary with his first ball received.
With 1 over to go and 2 runs needed Graham was on strike. Not for Graham a nurdling shot for a sneaky couple – he just opened his shoulders and sent the ball down to cow-corner boundary for the winning runs. 175-6 after 39.1 overs.