This weekend's game saw us welcome Midsomer Norton to Combe Park

With the pitch and overhead conditions, we collectively thought that bowling first was the way to go. Although the toss was lost, Midsomer Norton chose to bat and so we got our wish. However, after an early breakthrough from Ollie Gooding with a sharp catch at slip from Sam Athay, our opposition proved that the wicket was good for batting. After putting on a partnership of 106 runs Sam Bowery got the crucial breakthrough we needed shortly after the drinks break. This came at the perfect time as we were able to regroup and reinstall some confidence in ourselves after a difficult start. We came out fighting from the drinks break and this was shown in the field by the team. Sam continued his good form with the ball, picking up 3 wickets in total at an economical rate to add to his tally for the season. With all bowlers being utilised Ollie also finished with 3 wickets of his own in addition to a fine run out from the boundary from Si Cole. Midsomer Norton completed their innings with 210-7 on the board, and with our batting performances in the previous weeks, it was a total we were confident in chasing down.

With Sam Athay returning to the team, he was back opening the batting with Dan Veal who was looking to continue with his fine form with the bat. Midsomer Norton's opening bowling was strong with Mitchell Turner taking 2 early wickets removing both our openers with only 21 runs on the board. This brought Adam Carlin and Si Cole to the crease earlier than expected, who looked to immediately counter with some strong attacking play. This piled the pressure back on the bowling side and a quickfire 33 from Si put us back on track and it was great to see his form coming back. Adam took on the responsibility and a very important and fantastic knock saw him anchoring the innings with 67 until he succumbs to a good catch at mid off. We continued to chip away at the total but as the innings progressed we continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and our opposition were gaining confidence all the time. The momentum was swinging back the other way and Midsomer Norton looked to have put themselves into a position to snatch the win. However, our tail end dug in and showed great character slowly guiding the team towards the winning line. With 9 wickets down and 10 runs still needed it was building towards a very tense climax to the game. With Louis Mancini and Joel Parry at the crease, both were able to stay calm in the moment. The winning runs came as Joel guided a ball along the ground, wide of the slips towards the boundary where third man was missing... a fielder gave chase as the ball slowly rolled towards the rope and as it trickled over the boundary victory was claimed!

Although it wasn't our most fluid display, it was a fantastic gritty and hard-fought performance shown by the team. It's these kind of performances that feel even more special when you are able to get over the line and shows great character from the guys. And so as we enter the final month of the season there's a strong confident feeling and team spirit within the group.