Andy Owen (2/40) and Rog Shelley (0/30) began the match with superbly economical spells, between them restricting NCI to just ??/? after 20 overs. In the second half of the innings the batsmen did get away from us while we kept making tactical bowling changes, Adrian Mellish (2/55) bowling ten overs on the bounce while Dave Clark (0/13), Catherine Owen (0/20), Roy Page (0/32) and Richard Rex (1/23) kept things in check at the other end.
NCI were presumably pretty optimistic about their prospects of defending their total of 219/5, and they would have been even happier if they'd known we had just four regular top-order batsmen in the team. But it only takes two batsmen to put together a partnership, and that's what we got as Nick Clarke (92 off 94 balls) and Rod Dennis (75 off 113 balls) compiled possibly our best-ever opening stand, putting on 181 runs in 31 overs, all with the pressure of a decent target looming over them. When Rod was dismissed we needed a seemingly easy 39 runs from 54 balls, but it makes a big difference when there's a new batsman at the crease, and Roy Page (18 off 33 balls) initially struggled to score. Somehow it came down to the last over: we needed 4 runs from the final 6 balls. Critically, though, Andy Owen (4* off 2 balls) was in and on strike, and he duly hit his second ball to the boundary to secure our miracle win.