A&R 2nds 205-9 lost to Stanway 207-8 by 2 wicketsD

Alcester & Ragley 2nd XI suffered a narrow defeat last Saturday losing by 2 wickets to Stanway in the last over of the match.
On a damp wicket A & R were put into bat and wickets fell regularly. Only captain Dave Swinburn offered any resistance with an attacking 56 but when Dave was seventh out in the 24th over and the total still only 94 it did not look good for A& R. However an excellent partnership between Tom Wadelin 54 and Mike Bennett 36 enabled an excellent recovery and the innings closed after 45 overs at 205 for 9.
Aggressive batting by the Stanway opening bat helped by some lose early bowling saw Stanway off to a flying start in their reply. But Sam Westwood’s lift on the damp wicket unsettled two of the early batsman and after Ollie Swinburn dismissed the free scoring opener with a well disguised slower delivery, A & R got back into the match. An excellent partnership for the 4th wicket put Stanway in a strong position but the return of Sam Westwood and an excellent yorker achieved the deserved breakthrough followed quickly by a second wicket for Ollie. In the increasing gloom the new batsmen found runs hard to get but Stanway had overs in hand and still looked favourites to reach their target. But Simon Sloan bowled an inspiring late spell taking 3 for 15 and with 8 wickets down Stanway could not afford to take any more risks. Gradually the closed in on the target and finally passed the A & R total with a four of the first ball of the 45th over.