After the exciting victory last week and subsequently going second in the league table, a large crowd was expected to watch our final fixture against the Spartans.

After the start was slightly delayed due to the large crowd being ushered into the arena and seated, ( well Pete Romyn finding himself a chair ), Barford took to the field. Wickets were hard to come by early doors, but with some accurate bowling by openers Hawkins and Hawkins and tidy fielding the run rate was kept down. A few wicket's towards the end of the innings from Johnson and Griffin, and the Spartan's finished on 79-4 from their 10 overs.

For the second week running Barford had to hit 80 runs to win the game. Opener's Drage and Andy Hawkins went to the crease and could not have started any better, with 15 coming off the first over. Unfortunately Hawkins fell in the second, but with Drage looking good, hitting 4's and 6's and the batting powerhouses of Griffin and Simon Hawkins coming up next, there was still plenty of confidence in the Barford camp. A stroke of bad luck in the fourth over saw Drage depart, played on for 23.This bought Hawkins to the crease, who had made a comment earlier on in the evening, how nobody gets out caught behind. Would his words come back to haunt him? Two balls later, the answer was yes. Johnson was up next renewing his partnership with Griffin, but unlike last week it was quickly ended as Ben fell cheaply. All the pressure was now on Johnson and last man Phil Morris. Could they hit the runs needed within the remaining 3 overs? Sadly there was to be no fairytale ending this week as they both perished in the next over and we ended up 26 runs short.

It just didn't happen with the bat for us this week. Unlucky guys.

Simon International