A gloomy day at Ashford led to a less than gloomy match, with Old Firparnians winning a very close contest by 1 wicket with 6 overs to spare. Ashford won the toss and elected to bat, but tight opening bowling always kept them restricted. With only one meaningful partnership (both ironically removed by Shaun Hancock), Ashford had been restricted to 126 with only one over remaining, but then Shaun stepped up to fulfil his destiny. It should be pointed out that the Captain's total lack of mental arithmetic skills meant that Shaun had this dubious honour, and in fine style he was carted around the park for 21 runs, making a huge mess of his bowling figures.
In reply, Old Firps set off like a train (despite an early bath for Ian Kassell with a shiny golden for his pains), and looked like finishing the game with some 20 overs to spare. Brutal hitting by Mark Cross and Shaf Rehman made the game look all over, but the regular fall of wickets and the departure of Matt Guest retired hurt, following him leaving alone a full-pitcher which was always going to hit his ankle bone, meant that it was left to Simon France and Brian Knowles to make the 13 left to win, with Brian hitting a fine leg-side boundary to seal matters. Nice game, pity about the sledging.
OFCC Records