There can few more pleasant places in England to play cricket than Napton’s ground on a balmy day in high summer. The ground was most picturesque on Sunday, with the surrounding trees in full leaf, bright blue skies containing a few fluffy clouds and the sun beaming down. Mike had even set up a water slide for the kids to use through the day. Groundsman Graham had prepared a straw-coloured wicket and both teams expected a run filled encounter. And yet, a low scoring tussle ensued, with both teams finding batting difficult. On the hottest day of the year so far skipper Sam lost the toss and Napton were bowling.

Stuart and Sam opened the bowling and kept things tight. The key moment of the match was probably in the seventh over when Stuart bowled Barford’s best batsmen and from this point on Napton’s bowlers never released the pressure. Joe delivered a fine spell of accurate off spin first change, then Mike Eadon bowled a typically parsimonious spell, which also saw him take two wickets. But the bowler of the day was undoubtably Rob Pelter. Bowling eight consecutive overs Rob picked up four wickets, one to a catch, two bowled and a stumping. This stumping saw Rob send up a well flighted, teasing delivery which beat the batsman and Mike ‘sharp hands’ Nyren demolished the stumps to effect the stumping. With JP capturing the final wicket, Napton bowled out the opposition for 99, what seemed like a very gettable target.

Barford 99a.o. in 36 overs.
R. Pelter 4-14
S. Alsop 2-11
M. Eadon 2-16
J Alsop 1-14
J.P. Eadon 1-10

Graham and this correspondent (Olly) started off the chase. I played some fine shots, including one fantastic pull shot to the boundary, meanwhile at the other end Graham attempted to play a cover drive to what seemed like every ball. He did eventual connect with one gloriously, but only collected two runs as he was busy admiring the shot rather than running. After taking the team to 28 both openers departed in short order. It soon became apparent that Barford has some skilful bowlers, with the scorching sunshine drying out the pitch batting was becoming an increasingly tricky prospect. The Napton batsmen did prove adhesive and took some body blows from the now spitting pitch, but at the half way point of the innings Napton found themselves in a hole at 56-5. It was the Eadon brothers who managed to get the chase on track again, with JP playing a sprightly innings before Mike replaced him at the wicket to calmly steer Napton home. The match ended when Ed Shillitoe thumped one to the long on boundary and Napton won by 3 wickets.

Napton 101-7 in 32.3 overs.
O. O’Brien 22
M. Eadon 14*

Another fine win for Napton, having won all four matches we have played. It is the opinion of this correspondent though, that the batting order has yet to click and produce the volume of runs we have seen in previous years. Perhaps some more practice and application is required?