All the boys arrived early at the ground, even Steve Bennett turned up before 1 and joined in with the pre-match chat around the wicket. Langley Mill turned up and proceeded to warm up for about 40 minutes, Steve said Thats what we should be doing lads Smalley responded Yeah right, dude. After pulling the Langley Mill skipper away from his teams exercise session, which Mr Motivator would have been proud of, Holmes lost the toss and Clowne were put in to bat on a damp wicket after mid week rain. The wicket would have something in it early on and the Clowne lads would have to bat well. Smalley and White opened the innings as normal, and like normal Clowne lost an early wicket. Smalley falling caught at cover for 1. Hendley then went 3 overs later for his 3rd duck in 4 innings, good shooting sir. This brought skipper Holmes to the crease and he and 'Chalkie' White then set about re-building the Clowne innings. This would not be easy as Ball and Leatherday were clearly benefiting from the excessive excersise before the game and were swinging and seaming the ball every which way, however the Clowne pair picked on the loose balls. Holmes and White had put on 54, and seen off the opening bowlers before Holmes played a rash shot and fell for 35. This brought Spencer to the crease and he went for 9 playing a strange shot. Wickets then fell at an alarming rate with White going for 15 caught again. Womble then smashed a quick 17 before getting a bit excited and hitting a pull come drive to extra cover. The rest of the boys got the following scores, Parker (4), Bennett (4), Parsons (5), Swannack (0) and Pollard (4*). The innings was over inside 35 overs, Clowne all out for 105, the pick of the Langley bowlers being Tullet (4-19).

Clowne Town 105 all out

After a few choice words the Clowne skipper dragged his team back on to the field, no tea yet, still work to be done. Swannack and Pollard opened the bowling with the aim of taking 2 or 3 wickets before tea. Clowne were under no illusions that this was going to be a difficult task in preventing Langley Mill getting the runs required. However we sensed a bit of complacency within the Langley camp. Swannack started coming down the hill and bowling with good pace had Leatherland dropped in his first over at 2nd slip. Pollard as he has prooved all season, was more lucky, he had Mee bowled for 0 with his 4th ball. Game on Langley Mill 6-1 after 2 overs, anything was possible. Ball was the third Batsman in and he survived a Swannack delivery which clearly took the outside edge of his bat, however both the umpire and the Batsman failed to recognise this and Ball remained at the crease. The over before tea Bennett was brought in to the attack and bowled a testing over however could not take a wicket. Tea was taken and the Clowne bowlers had a short snackand prepared themselves for a do or die spell. We went back out on to the pitch with the feeling that we could win this, the team spirit was excellant, perhaps because we felt hard done by the Ball decision. Steve and Swanny continued their spells and Langley Kill moved on to 27 after 17 overs. Bennett then gave Ball a very good Ball and bowled him for 7. The game then went through a quite period with Langley Mill moving the score on slowly, they had scored 50 off 28 overs. Pollard and Parsons were now bowling, Pollard produce the now famous 'saturday Night Scuttler' and had Trower LBW for 8. He then had the Langley opener and mainstay, Leatherland bowled with a similar delivery for a well made 26. 'Make sure the scoreboards right fellows'. The scoreboard now read 64-4, 14 overs remaining. Langley skipper Davey was in at 6 and he looked to push the scoring along. At the other end Parsons had Burks caught and bowled with a funny looking dive. Matthew Parker who had dropped a difficult catch earlier in the game then produced the turning point of the game, Langley skipper clipped one off his legs over mid wicket, Parker stuck up a hand twisted backwards and somehow plucked the ball from the sky, the Clowne lads were now up for this. Langley Mill were now 79-5 and still looking well in control. Hallsworth was then caught off the bowling of Parsons. Tullet was bowled by the returning Swannack. He then had Sission caught by Womble. Langley Mill needed 17 to win with one wicket left, with 4 overs left. Clarance can in and smashed Bennett to the boundry, however 3 balls later Pollard caught him at mid wicket to start some wild celebrations amongst the Clowne Boys. Pick of the Clowne bowlers were Swannack (11/4/24/2), Pollard (14/7/11/3), Bennett (10.5/5/19/3) and Parsons (8/1/31/2).

All in all a fantastic bowling effort under a great amount of pressure, it was also good to see the team spirit which has been generated all season carry us through this game. Lets hope we can take this forward for the remaining matches this season, if we do anything is possible