Chesterfords secured a vital win on Saturday against Matching Green as they clinched a thrilling victory in a game that could have quite easily had a very different result. Chesterfords won the toss and decided to bat on a flat hard pitch that looked as if it may deteriorate throughout the course of the game.

Chesterfords opening pair of J. Lipscombe and P.Phillips could not cope with the fast, accurate, hostile bowling of N. Scantlebury and C.Bass. Lipscombe (9) fell first to Bass after being rushed into playing a flick off of the hips that he mistimed causing the ball to loop up to square leg for an easy catch. Phillips (1) chased a wide delivery in Bass’s 3^rd over that caught the faintest of edges that was well caught by T.Hobbs.  Chesterfords soon had their backs to the wall as they quickly found themselves 20 for 2 after only 8 overs. With the dismissal of Chesterfords opening pair James Pullen and David Lightning strolled to the crease looking to build a strong partnership that could set a competitive run chase for Matching.  Scantlebury continued to bowl exceptionally well beating the bat on several occasions and was very unlucky not to take a wicket as he finished with figures of 0 for 22 off of 7 overs. C. Bass kept the pressure on the batsmen from the Chequers end, finishing with impressive figures of 2 for 18 off of 7overs. Pullen received a very fast Yorker from Bass that landed very painfully onto his foot and then 4 overs later, another delivery struck his foot in exactly the same place causing the batsmen a great deal of pain.

Pullen limped bravely on and with the help of Lightning they both started control the Matching Green bowling attack. Pullen looked in great touch as he struggled through the pain. His timing of the ball was immaculate as he started to find the boundary with increasing ease. Lightning was at his dominating best as Matching Green’s bowlers struggled to find their line and length. Pullen raced to his 50 after playing some typically elegant strokes and Lightning soon followed suit scoring his 50 in just 17 scoring shots. Chesterfords raced to 145 runs before Lightning was unlucky to be given out LBW on 57 after some good accurate bowling from Zac Miller the young Matching Green leg spinner. Pullen continued to smash the ball to the boundary despite his ankle injury and reached his 2nd league hundred with a perfectly executed square cut that flew to the boundary. Pullen’s innings came to an end 4 balls later as he pulled a short ball that was caught spectacularly by Bass fielding at deep square leg. Perring (11) continued well but thanks to the introduction of S. Hartnell 5 wickets for 2 runs, Matching Green managed to limit the damage by bowling Chesterfords out for 218 in the 43^rd over.

Matching Green’s opening batsmen set about the task of chasing down Chesterfords total with some breathtaking stroke play and some intelligent running. A. Stokeley bowled well returning figures of 10 overs for just 24 runs but T. Thake struggled to find his line and length as S.Hartnell and T.Hobbs took full advantage. Both batsmen looked in confident form as the score moved rapidly onto 95 off of 25 overs. The introduction of Walter Jackson into the bowling attack soon reaped rewards as he took the wicket of T.Hobbs after he struck a lofted drive straight at Jamie Perring who took the catch on the second attempt. Hartnell continued his fine form by scoring yet another league 50 in commanding fashion. Hartnell looked well set to take Matching Green all the way until Lipscombe bowled him on 74 with a ball that swung in through the gate of the left hander. Matching Green were now 145 for 2 from the 33^rd over and were still well ahead of the required run rate. With the introduction of two new batsmen at the crease Chesterfords knew that if they could just take some early wickets the pressure would quickly shift from the fielding side to the batting side. Two brilliant run outs by Pullen and Stokley as well as a further 3 wickets from Lipscombe brought Chesterfords within 2 wickets of victory in the 42^nd over. Matching Green required 33 runs off the last 3 overs with two wickets in hand but thanks to the cool head of P. Phillips who took the lat 2 wickets in 1 over,  Chesterfords managed to win the enthralling encounter by 29 runs.