Thriller at the Cublington Oval

It was a weekend of magnificent sporting action. Murray won Wimbledon, Froome regained the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, Hamilton won the British Grand Prix and some Portuguese footballologists won something or other European in Paris. To cap all of that was a magnificent cricket match at the Cublington Oval which saw Rivets home with one wicket and one ball to spare on a stodgy, dead track that somehow yielded 499 runs in 79.5 overs.

Cubs won the toss and batted, steadily at first with Borch adding knocking up 83 before retiring with a jolly sore leg (diddums). Farr, Gordon-Stuart and Bridgen took the rate up in the latter stages of the innings. The last ten overs saw 100 runs added to set Rivets an imposing 250 to win.

Bridgen and Orchard (in the guise of Fairhurst - long story, skipper can't count) leaked 83 runs off the first ten overs as Rivets set off at a cracking pace. Wickets fell steadily, and on a couple of occasions so did the rain. (This weather's not going to change now..." said Cublington's answer to Michael Fish). In the face of some muttering and resistance and with covers coming on and off we got back out see to a conclusion a game that deserved to be finished. Ben P-W and Oscar Middleton did a great job in slowing the run rate but still Rivets attacked. Farr and Prof Middleton strove to contain them, until the skipper took the ball for the death overs. Death it was, and Chinese cut and wild smear in the final over saw Rivets over the line.

A great match.