Englefield green had been originally obtained through the conference in 2002. Then, away at their ground, we waited over an hour for the Ireland World Cup game to finish. No such delay this year, it was straight into a 40 over game in reasonable dry, warm and sunny weather. conditions. reading the scorebook, it looks suspiciously as if we won the toss, as we batted first. It was decided that Matt Oliver should be promoted up the order to open with Johno Greathead.

     Parrott, their opening bowler, started off with a maiden and then Whittle, with the last ball of his first over got Matt playing at a shot which wasn't really on. Too late, the ball got bit big on him and committed to the shot, he gave a catch without troubling the scorer. Ben Pudney replaced him but had to wait a couple of overs before getting off the mark. At the end of the 4th over when he scored his inaugural run there were eight runs on the board, just two runs of which had come off the bat. From this point, runs started to come with relative ease, and not only off the bat: there were a fair few extras here and there, some of which made the boundary. We are not fussy, they all count! Johnno and Ben were getting into a nice rhythm, getting the score up to 36 by the 9th over when it seems the inevitable struck and we lost our second wicket, Ben being bowled by Robson, and this in turn brought Ian Brown to the crease.

     Ian was determined to put in a good performance after some disappointing results, often receiving a virtually unplayable delivery before getting a chance to settle down. Today, he was like a man possessed, every delivery received he watched like a hawk and ensured the bad delivery was put away. The pitch was still demonstrating some variable bounce but both batsmen survived some good bowling and by the time John Lowe was caught lbw by Wojchiech in the 20th over another 24 had been added to the score. Ian was now joined at the crease by Neal Haworth whose stuck around for the next nine overs, during which time some nicely timed shots from both batsmen made their way to the boundary. Another nice little partnership, this was worth a another 25 runs before Neil was leg-before, the ball from Povey turning in quite sharply to trap him.

     Ian Brown was still there though, and after Terry Axe was bowled he was quite happy to let Adie lamberth take centre-stage with yet another of his little cameos. Adie will not hang around if he can help it and will quite happily crash a boundary from a ball aiming for his middle stump. Today though, he reached double figures only for his bat to disintegrate as he attempted another big shot. It must have put him off somewhat as the very next ball shaved the edge of his bat to be caught in the slips. Never mind, this was the 37th over and Ian had occupied his end for some 27 overs, when he struck a huge six to bring up his 50, which turned out to be the first batting jug of the year. A couple of singles later, he missed the ball completely which turned in slightly to bowl him. The last of three overs of the innings realised a handy 19 runs, Phil Dawson belting a tasty four before BhanI bowled him with the last ball of the innings with our total on 144, not a bad total at all.

     Englefield green are handy with the bat so it was quite handy when their opener Smith was frustrated by some tight bowling, and edged one to Ben who was fielding at second slip. One wicket for two runs was an excellent start for West end. Barrett also claimed Barney, this time he was bowling round the wicket when he claimed leg-before and the umpire gave it. It was not known who was more surprised: the bowler for actually getting an lbw decision from round the wicket, or the batsmen for being lbw from whichever side of the wicket! This brought Robson to the crease to join the opener Ireland who was slowly proving to be a thorn in the side, seemingly able to play some challenging deliveries without too much trouble to.

     Robson didn't hang around long, he retired hurt as it were complaining of feeling dizzy and dehydrated with the heat and all that. Never mind, we said, bring the next one on! The visitors' score was still ticking over quite steadily and Engelfield Green were still on course to reach their target, should they not lose too many more wickets. before too long the score had reached 54 when a quite fantastic bit of quick thinking saw Neal Haworth brilliantly run the last opener out with a excellent throw from midwicket. Phil Dawson, who had bowled quite tightly but without luck had been replaced by beefy Turner from the pavilion end: he had the other Smith out just seven runs later: the batsman could do nothing with an excellent delivery except hit it straight back into Beefy's hands for a caught and bowled. this brought Kirby into bat who, after her slightly hesitant start proved to be a new got thorn in the side.

     Beefy also removed Parrott clean bowled with the score unchanged. His overs finished it was time for Neil himself to keep the pressure up which he did admirably, some accurate bowling reaped the wickets of their No. 8 and number nine batsmen, bowled and lbw respectively with n1ne runs between them. This made Inglefield green 80 odd for seven net eight wickets when Robson declared himself fit to come back out and join Kirby for the 8th and last wicket as a Inglefield had only nine men. The end was in sight for West end, yet this quite capable pairing quite confidently took on the bowling: Barrett came back for a second spell but finished his overs with no further joy yet runs were being snaffled here and there and before we knew it the hundred was here and gone.

     Amazingly, the run rate was not far behind what was required when Phil Dawson, now steaming in from the Pavilion end started asking serious questions of both batsmen. His pressure soon bore fruit when a looping full length delivery found its way through to make a mess of Kirby's stumps as the long shadows from the trees on the north and west side of the Recreation ground stretched across the wicket. It had been quite a slog but West End had finally chalked up their first winner of the season, following on from the draw against Fairlands the previous week. Another result was a half-century from Ian Brown, who promised to buy a jug of beer during the Cornwall cricket tour barely a week away. Cheers!