Let’s get tea out the way first; another excellent one scoring highly on the Andy H ‘quotient meter’.
Turning to the match, having won the toss Leyhill elected to bat, and a good opening stand of 46 looked as if it might threaten a score in excess of 200 at one point. However with Richard (4 for 42) taking a wicket with his first ball to a fine legside catch by Phil K and Ciaran (1 for 18) bowling an excellent 8 over spell backed up by Max, Lawrence, Andy (1 for 36), and guest Jason (1 for 10) and good fielding (catches for Phil K(2), Richard(2) and Earle), Leyhill relied on a 5th wicket stand of 80 to set a score of 181 for 7 in their 40 overs.
Probably for the first time in more years than the two players would care to recall, Lawrence (32) and Malcolm (28) (and that’s not their ages!) opened for the Ives and set the stage for the innings with an opening stand of 53 in 13 overs. Max and Richard (23) pushed the run rate along and after Richard departed, Phil K joined Max in a decisive stand of 71 to take Ives within 2 runs of victory before Max fell on 49 trying for his third consecutive 4 leaving Phil K unbeaten on 39 and Matthew to hit the wining 4 with 6 overs to spare and an excellent win,