The pitch looked like a plum batting track and boy were we right! Conditions were pleasant with patches of grey cloud. Beechwood won the toss and elected to field. McCrae and Hill opened the bowling for Beechwood and it quickly became clear that the Southborough openers were going to play their shots. Neither bowler was bowling badly but anything in the batsmens half was being severely punished. Hill managed to make the breakthrough, Kelly taking a comfortable catch at mid-wicket.

Cooksley replaced Hill but after one over with a short leg-side boundary it was obvious he needed to bowl from the other end. He swapped ends with McCrea who benefited by picking up a wicket clean bowling the batsman but Southborough already had over a hundred on the board in the first hour. Things didn't improve as Southborough's remaining opener Dougie Bird went into overdrive. Kelly replaced McCrea for a rare spell and rolled back the years bowling a good line and length and managing to slow the run rate slightly. Boss came on in place of Cooksley but found out what the other bowlers already knew, that there was a very small margin for error. Southborough eventually declared 20 minutes before tea having amassed 272 for 2.

Kelly and Makin opened what was going to be a tough innings for Beechwood chasing a fairly improbable target. They made a fairly solid start until Makin attempted a pull shot and got a top edge that was caught at mid wicket.

Warner was next up and quickly departed to a very good catch in the covers. Kelly for some reason thought he was Linford Christie and was run out attempting a suicidal second run. Hill came in to join Salmon and struck some lusty blows before he was bowled. McCrea came in and batted well before a brief rain delay.

Salmon was caught behind having put in a good effort with the bat and Herd came in. These two were without doubt the pick of the batsmen and managed to dig in until McCrea was comprehensively bowled.

Morton came in and played straight but was caught sharply in the slips. Robinson entertained briefly but eventually got his shovel out and spooned a delivery straight up in the air, so straight in fact that the ball was going to drop on his head. This meant the fielder had to try and get past Robinson, something he was not allowed/able (you decide) to do. Herd could not believe what he was seeing and felt the need to come down and have a closer look. He came so far down he actually passed Robinson at the other end and only just made it back and avoided what would have been a spectacular run out. Robinson and Herd or should I say Laurel and Hardy frustrated the bowlers for a while longer before Robinson was bowled and Cooksley played out the last over as Beechwood battled to a draw finishing on 114 for 8.

Team: Boss, Cooksley, Herd, Hill (c), Kelly, Makin (w), McCrea, Morton, Robinson, Salmon, Warner