Location: Eymet

So, here we were in the club’s first ever cup final, playing in front of our biggest ever crowd. We lost the toss and St. Aulaye decided to bat first on Eymet’s artifical pitch.
Peter and Gulshan opened the bowling. St.Aulaye’s batsmen  progressed slowly, giving a few half chances but the wickets wouldn’t come. David Hill and Arun came on next, with the latter bowling beautifully and deservedly he made the breakthrough trapping their no.2 lbw.  David Lappin and Paddy took over the bowling and St. Aulaye were still unable to score freely, with the run rate around only 4 per over. As they tried to accelerate, wickets fell. Their no.1 was smartly caught behind by Sonia off Paddy. Jack made a hard catch look simple at square leg to remove their number three, giving Paddy a second wicket. With Peter back into the attack, their batsmen continued to find runs hard to come by. The no.4 took a risk and was caught in the covers by Arun off Pete. Finally in the last few overs, St. Aulaye’s nos. 5 and 6 did begin to have some success with their shots, until the no.5 was caught off Paddy. The innings closed on 170-5 off 35 overs. Our team’s mood was positive. The artificial pitch seemed to have a very even bounce and we had kept them to under 5 per over. 171 to win seemed a real possibility.

After refreshments generously provided by Eymet, David Hill and Gulshan set off to open our run chase. Unfortunately, our innings was unable to gather momentum. Off the first 8 overs only 16 runs were scored as St. Aulaye’s opening bowlers kept things very tight. Gulshan was out lbw in the next over and David Lappin replaced him. By the time St. Aulaye’s number one bowler had completed his full seven over spell, giving up only 7 runs, our total was only 26-1 off 14 overs. Gradually the two Davids began to push the score along, until David Hill was out lbw in the 17th over. Arun came in next and the runs began to come. David Lappin hit over the top with great success, although the slow outfield meant that shots which deserved a boundary often only gave 1s or 2s. However, then, David Lappin was bowled for 32 in the 21st over. Peter immediately got hold of St. Aulaye’s support bowlers, launching a couple of mighty sixes. With him and Arun also running hard, Noé had some big overs and between them this pair put on 48 in only 7 overs, keeping us in with a chance. But, with the score on 114 in the 28th over, Arun was adjudged run out for 24 as they pressed for every possible run. Ankit followed in the same over and we were 119-5. Clive came in at no.7. He and Pete ran everything they could until Pete was caught behind for a rapid 28. We now needed 44 to win off 6 overs. Paddy hit out bravely before being caught at mid on, with Jack holing out soon after. Allan and Clive ran some quick runs until Allan was bowled in the penultimate over as he valiantly tried to hit over the top. That brought Sonia to the wicket with us still needing 20 to win and nine wickets down. It was too much to ask and our innings closed on 155-9 off 35 overs. Excellent batting from our nos.3,4,5 : David Lappin, Arun and Peter nearly enabled us to snatch victory, but it was not to be.     

Presentations and speeches duly followed. As a team we could reflect that in the first year we had entered this competition we had made it all the way to the final and that we had been close to a famous victory. Many thanks to Eymet and Siddall’s for organising the cup final occasion and we hope to be back next year.

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