We assembled at Stoke d’Abernon on a beautiful day, the heatwave of the previous week having given way to a mixture of sunshine and cloud with a steady breeze.

The pitch was in excellent condition, flat with a fine covering of green and the outfield was a happy contrast to the moonscape of the previous week.

A tight opening session by Petrol Baron and Xero prevented Stoke from getting away. Wickets came slowly but steadily, no partnership being allowed to develop for too long.

Hansie’s canny bowling picked up wickets. Cuscus came on from the railway end, and produced a nightmare opening over full of wides and double-pitchers but captain Kommander kept the faith and ’Cus soon found his rhythm. Juan bowled with his accustomed bad luck (TM Col Juan), potential catches falling into no-man’s land (aside from one which Daisy should have taken), but he got one – bowled – in the end.

Kommander came on to clear up the tail, a tactic that nearly backfired as Stoke had kept their Aussie pinch-hitter back to number eight. Xero was recalled – an action clearly unrelated to his recent elevation to the judiciary! Oddly enough, Kommander forwent the opportunity to give the nod to the club’s top strike bowler. However, Stoke were dismissed for 160, which felt like a gettable target on a good pitch.

Your correspondent cannot comment on tea, as he was mentally preparing himself for opening the batting, and by the time he went to find some it had been all but wiped out. (shame – ed.)

Stoke are a young side, and it was clearly not going to be easy to penetrate the field. Daisy and The Andy opened the batting, having received instructions to stay in for ten overs. Stoke’s opening bowler was fairly quick and got some swing, but both the pitch and the light were in the batsmens’ favour. Regrettably, they both succumbed to ducks, The Andy receiving an excellent yorker, Daisy playing down the wrong line.

Bully and Penthouse put together a very strong partnership, which seemed to point the way to a victory. Penthouse played his classical best, to great effect. Bully, having been switched from opener to number three, also swapped his style from none-shall-pass to haymaker. A switch of bowling to spin, however, saw the scoring rate fall. Penthouse eventually succumbed playing across the line, failing to follow his own advice to Bully. He was replaced by Cus, and the opening bowlers were recalled.

Bully fell to a yorker and was replaced by Moggie who’s unlikely partnership with Cus proved most effective, although Cus wasn’t quite at the top of his game – we’ve got used to seeing him turn up after a two-month absence, and stroke a quick 70 as though he’s just come out of a Test match. But the score kept ticking along, with good running between the wickets.

At 102 for four with 20 overs to go we seemed to be cruising, providing we kept our heads and wickets – Petrol, Kommander and the rejuvenated Juan still to come. Unfortunately it fell apart by pieces. Cus was given out caught behind, to his evident surprise. Pookie mistimed one and was pouched at short mid-off. Juan was injured fielding and dropped to 11, so it was up to Kommander and Petrol to steer the ship safely into port.

Fat chance! Petrol slashed away at everything that was going, and quite a lot that wasn’t. When Hansie joined him, Kommander realised that last-gasp tactics were required, and started to hit out. Curiously enough, he insists it was the conservative nature of his stroke-play which caused him to be caught at the mid-on boundary. Apparently, he didn’t want to look “too agricultural” and didn’t put sufficient welly into his big kahoona. He also bemoaned the fact that he had not replaced his aging bat with Kookaburra’s “The Big Kahoona”.

The last gasp came as Juan went out with a runner, Kommander. With 20 runs required, it was all too predictable. Kommander was run out going for a second, no advance having been made on the score.

All in all, disappointing to lose. Had the openers managed 20 between them we’d have won. But everyone enjoyed it, it’s a first-class pitch with a first-class pavilion, and they’re a challenging opposition – and a draw wouldn’t have done the match justice.