The 4s arrived at Long Sutton following back-to-back wins and ready to take on runway league leaders Binsted, who had only dropped two points all season. As ever the prep started early with Netty and Freddie on teas, and Paul working hard on the pitch. Thanks all for your efforts.

The skipper lost the toss and we were inserted into the field, as the rain started to fall. Hursty was somehow oblivious to this all, and was still to change into his whites as some of his teammates entered the pitch.

Young guns Corbyn and Nic shared the new ball and both started tidily. Binsted aren’t known to hang about and played their shots from ball one, but our young bowlers held their nerve. Corbyn found an early breakthrough, the opener skying one from a good-length ball outside off that was taken by Drew hovering at mid-off. Three balls later we had a second thanks to the smart thinking of keeper Sid, who realised no.3 was batting outside his crease, and threw the stumps down after Corbyn had beaten his outside edge. 11-2 from 3, and a terrific start from our junior section.

Binsted kept coming and Nic and Corbyn were unlucky not to find another wicket with their tidy lines. They were supported some excellent fielding on the boundary by Freddie in front of the scorers and spectators, but less so by some of us more senior players on the other side of the pitch, as Binsted raced to 70-2 from 8.

Merlot brought himself and Hursty on to try and halt the onslaught, and after an untidy start, the skipper got a wicket, the opener being about half an hour early on a hoick over cow and losing his leg stump, having just brought up his half century off 25 balls. The skipper picked up another next over, as the opener popped one up into the offside, and Sid narrowly beat Netty to the catch, 89-4 from 11.

Merlot and Hursty kept things tight, helped by some excellent work from various boundary fielders, but we knew we had to keep going. Three wickets in four balls certainly helped, as the skipper twice hit the stumps, before pinning the oppo skipper on his front pad, giving us our Trippier vs Croatia (or Barham vs Bradford) moment, as Binsted slipped to 110-7 from 15.

We knew from earlier in the season that Binsted keep coming at you, so weren't complacent. Drew and Freddie entered the attack and both looked dangerous as the rain kept coming and going, Drew (6-1-19-0) giving very little away, and Freddie (0-18 from 4) finding some excellent swing to threaten the outside edge of the batters. One six off Drew resulted in a ball search, with the batters ending up at the wrong end next ball, something oblivious to all bar myself.

The number 4 was still looking to get on with things, but the number 9 refused to play a shot, so we brought the sweepers in and brought back the slips as we looked for wickets.The partnership continued to build, and Drew decided to suggest to no.9 that he try and hit one off the square. Hopefully that wouldn’t come back to haunt us.

Corbyn and Nic were back on, with the field pushed back out with the batters threatening to go big. Corbyn (8-1-63-2) got a bit of tap defending the short boundary, but still continued to be very threatening in what was an excellent performance. Nic was also much better than his stats suggest, particularly at the death where he was able to delay the onslaught.

The skipper brought himself and Hursty back on to close things out and Drew’s words very much bit back, as we conceded 79 from the last four, both batters clearing the fence comfortably. Slower-balls, yorkers, hiding it outside off-stump – nothing seemed to work as it can be a bit tricky trying to defend short boundaries against good batters. Merlot (5-65) going from taking five wickets in four overs to conceding 40 runs from two!

Hursty (1-71) did take a wicket with three balls to go, bowling the number four for a superb century. Unfortunately number 10 could also bat and launched him over long-off, for a sixth lost ball of the innings, Binsted ending 303-8 from their 40.

A superb tea was joyed by all in the interval, thanks to Freddie and Netty for putting it together and to Lily for setting it up while we were busy watching cricket balls threaten the local plant-life. Binsted really appreciated it and were grateful for our reciprocation of their fantastic tea back in May.

Matt and Stenners went out in pursuit of our target, and immediately found Binsted would give nothing away with the ball or in the field. The pressure told early as Stenners (0) offered catching practice to the ring, before Matt (1) was adjudged to have been trapped in front, 6-2 from 6. A rare failure from our dependable opener wasn’t enough to see him displaced from the top ten run scorers in our division…

These wickets saw our father-son combo of Oli and Sid batting together, Oli forgetting he’d stored a towel in his whites and rather amusingly batting with a tail. The pair worked hard to build a partnership and rotate strike, until Sid (7) missed a straight one and Oli (12) kicked a straight one, 29-4.

Freddie game in and looked to take Binsted on at their own game. 10 runs from his first three balls including two lovely fours, before pulling a rather high bouncer to square leg, 40-5.

Drew (0) followed soon after, as did Nic (8), Corbyn (4) and Hursty (4) who all hit nice boundaries. Netty (21*) continued to battle away at the other end and looked in complete control, but eventually ran out of partners as Merlot (2) spooned one up, as we were bowled out for 84.

Another tough game against Binsted but once again I'm immensely proud that we managed to make them sweat for a bit. There won't be many teams this year (or next) that will do that.

A huge thanks to Paul for both prepping us a fantastic cricket pitch and for umpiring all game, and to St John and Angus for umpiring and scoring the second innings.

Muppet of the week: Mark Hurst, for falling asleep in his car and having to be woken up and told he needed to pad up, as he was next in