Appleshaw welcomed Ravenstone CC, a touring team from Buckinghamshire. The opposition had stretched off fully having kept the Chairman up until the early hours and then warmed up in the Walnut for a pre match libations. The weather seemed to be set fair with the chance of a few showers later in the day.

ACC won the toss and decided to bat. Messrs Hughes and Walters took the helm only for the chairman to turn on his heel two balls later for zero. Then Barney, Caspar & Charlie took control and all retired on 50. There were a few more lusty blows through the order and we ended up on 198 for our 35 overs, a club record for half centuries and total score!

After the usual eclectic tea (special prize for little Jim for his chicken satay skewers!) followed and the weather started to close in. Some indifferent bowling from the chairman was backed up by more quality from Freddie, Jim, Caspar, Si and Tommy G. The real standout was our fielding, in particular the fact that there were 4 slip catches taken, more than a season total! The oppo got us worried towards the end but were eventually bowled out for 185. We had spell of rain during our fielding and the pitch held up well. There have been many opinions given about the new plastic pitch but if you were to just look in the score book for the last couple of games, the number of runs scored is markedly up, which would point to a reasonable batting surface. There is no way that nearly 400 runs would have been scored on the old track!

They were a great team to play against, very much the same ethos as ACC and they joined us for our summer party that evening.