Alcester & Ragley 1st (119-9) beat Catherine de Barnes 1st (118 all out) by 1 wicket C

Catney won the toss and surprisingly chose to bat first at Ragley Hall on a day when wet weather was forecast.

The decision looked to be a good one though early on as they raced to 46 for no loss with opening bat Carl Lewis looking in excellent touch as he raced to 37. However at this score he struck the ball powerfully to Paul Dipple at mid off and set off for a run, but he was run out by yards as Dipple hit the stumps directly after an excellent piece of fielding. This gave Ragley a foot hold in the game that looked to be running away from them in the early exchanges. Marc Woolley was then introduced into the attack and for the 2nd week in a row he claimed 2 wickets in his first over, he had the other opener Hanlon lbw for 10 and then bowled Haywood 3rd ball for 0. This left the score at 63-3 after 13 overs. Next over Julian Reader carried on from where he had finished the previous week as he produced a snorter to bowl the dangerous Hancock for 4. The only batsman that seemed to give Catney any chance of reaching a decent total at this stage was their captain Jim Mason who was playing well at one end whilst wickets continued to tumble at the other. He had reached 40 and the total 118-8 when he played a very ambitious shot off the bowling of Steve Capron and was bowled. Tom Morris then came on at the other end and dismissed the final 2 batsmen in 10 balls at Ragley claimed maximum bowling points by dismissing Catney for 118 in only 31 overs. Woolley finished with 3-19, Capron 2-37 and Morris 2-3.

This left Ragley to score 119 in 58 overs, but with one eye on the weather as rain was forecast for early evening so there had to be some urgency in the scoring rate. At tea Ragley had reached 40-2 in only 10 overs so were well on course for an easy victory. However in the first over after the break Dipple was adjudged caught behind off the bowling of Mason for 24, and then Michael Coombs was run out next over after a mix up with Adam Peachey. This left Ragley tittering at 48-4, but Peachey was then joined by Adam Warbrick and they added 48 for the 5th wicket to ease Ragley’s nerves as they reached 96 before Warbrick was bowled for a well made 25, the top score of the innings. This left Ragley to get 21 runs with 36 overs and 5 wickets in hand. However a wicket fell in each of the next 3 overs, including Peachey for 22, excellently caught on the square leg boundary. This left the score at 111-8 with captain Ben Lee still there with Capron. They edged the score along to 116 in the next 6 overs before Capron was bowled by Michael Lewis from the last ball of the 31st over. Three were then required with only 1 wicket left and Lee was on strike to Carl Lewis. From the 3rd ball of the over he managed to work one out to the point boundary and come back for 2 runs to tie the scores at 118, then from the next ball he hooked it down to fine leg to score the winning run as Ragley scrapped home in a game they should have won comfortably.