We returned to the back pitch at Potash Farm this week wondering if anything could surpass the nail-biting finish of the previous game against Mitcham. As it happened, we were not to be disappointed...

Zoob lost the toss and we were put in to bat. Our openers suffered mixed fortunes: Goulston missed a forcing shot early on and saw his leg stump knocked back, whereas Zoob clearly relished his new role as opener and proceeded to score steadily from one end while Parkin mounted his familiar thumping attack from the other. Despite accurate bowling from Carshalton Gas, the runs flowed at a good rate to put our innings on a firm footing as we reached 108 for 1 after 24 overs.

Owen entered the arena at the fall of Parkin, and showed himself to be back in form as he embarked on a solid and productive innings. When Zoob's long vigil was ended at 157 for 3, Marmion joined Owen, only to watch in horror as he flipped an early delivery to the legside and saw it pouched by square leg. Despite these set-backs, Owen continued to build on the platform of runs with support from Malik, who played a quick and effective cameo knock. Only Hanna, the batsman due in next, was disappointed with Zoob's declaration at 204 for 4 to leave the match well poised.

Over tea, we mused about the fortunes of England's cricketers at Lord's, who had inexplicably dropped five catches to leave Australia in a commanding position. We agreed that this was sort of thing no self-respecting cricket side would do.

Carshalton Gas encountered early difficulties in their pursuit of 205 to win, as they quickly lost two wickets for just 18 runs to Hanna and Porter. Their number three batsman, Howgate, decided from the start to play all of his shots, and imposed himself on the game with a series of blazing, if risky, strokes. All of our bowlers stuck at their task doggedly, but watched in frustration as five catches of varying difficulty were spilled during an uncharacteristic series of lapses in the field. Although two more wickets fell at the other end during this assault, the danger was clear as Howgate reached his century and soon afterwards, with nine overs still to go, had amassed a personal tally of 120 runs out of a total of 174 for 4, including three huge sixes and six fours.

Just when all seemed lost, the ironic curse that had afflicted our fielding was suddenly dispelled by Chapman, who ran in sharply from deep extra cover to take a fine catch as Howgate played one extravagant shot too many off Porter's bowling. This proved to be the turning point of the game as Munro and Porter bowled with expert precision to remove the last six wickets for just 15 runs in 7.2 overs (five clean bowled and one superb reflex catch by Goulston at slip) and give us victory by the narrow margin of 15 runs.

Ian Chapman