The weather looked settled but rain was forecast for the afternoon so the Farley Sunday skipper had no hesitation to bat first if he won the toss..and he did.

Mike Blake and Neil Paulley were the opening pair for this game and both started steadily ensuring no wickets fell early on.

Paulley fell for 14 and Mike soon after, bowled for 13 as he attempted to attack the spinner who had just come into the attack. Suddenly Farley found themselves two down for 49 runs and somehow we were in the 20th over. With the Englefield over rate being slower than usual Farley needed to get runs quickly as time was the issue with just over an hour remaining.

Bilal Hussain and the captain Ali Jalil were both new at the crease but quickly begain to accumulate runs with some confident batting. The 100 came up in the 30th over and the 150 target by the fixed tea cut off time was now on.

Hussain perished for 31 ending a fine partnership of 74 with Jalil from only 11 overs. However one brought two as new batsman Adam Fiske was bowled 4 balls later for a duck. Zahid Mehmood was back in the team after missing last season to injury and got back into the swing of things with two delightfully timed boundaries. However with time running out he over exerted and was bowled for 8. 

Jalil kept the boundaries flowing to all parts of the ground as he passed his half century. Will White who had come to the crease to replace Mehmood was given orders to attack as there was only time for another 3 overs before the 4.30 cut off time. With the target of 150 already acheived Jalil and White both aimed to get as much as possible from the remaining 3 overs. Their final push took the score to a very respectable 173/5 off 39 overs at the tea interval. 30 runs had come off the last 3 overs and 124 off the last 19 overs. 

After tea and with a spring in their step the Farley boys aimed to put the pressure on the Englefield team from the outset with Peter 'pinky' Shaw and Mark Harvey opening the bowling. Both bowled well and soon Pink had taken yet another trademark caught and bowled to give Farley the early advantage. It wasn't long before Pink had taken another and the visitors were beginning to feel the pressure of the run chase. Harvey began to get into his stride and soon had his reward when Chas Beddow took a simple looping catch in the gully.

Pink continued to bowl well and take regular wickets. Blake pouched a sharp chance in the slips and Jalil took a fine judged catch running backwards to give Pink a much deserved 5 wicket haul and get rid of Englefield's resolute opener. 

At this point Farley were looking comfortable but a Farley Sunday game wouldn't be complete without some drama. Things began to get tense when it became apparent that the lower order infact had some fine sloggers and were not going to go down without a fight. Some good hitting gave Englefield some much needed momentum and Farley's bowlers began to struggle against Englefield's determined effort and counter attacking play.

After taking a wicket with his first ball Mehmood struggled to land the ball, however bowled some cracking deliveries in between.

Jalil had struggled during the same period after trying to figure the batsman out by mixing up his deliveries. This didn't work and the batsman were about to swing it the visitors' way. Beddow dropped a simple chance from the top edge of Englefield's main aggressor, off the bowling of Jalil and it looked as though that may have cost Farley the win.

With 10 overs and 70 runs required, Mehmood and Jalil continued to struggle against some hard hitting and soon the equation came down to 20 runs off 4 overs with 2 wickets in hand. Determined to seek revenge for the runs he conceded overs earlier the skipper took it upon himself to finish the game one way or another. The risk (tactic) paid off as he decided to bend his back and bowl with extra pace and off a longer run. Four dot balls put the pressure back on the Englefield batsman and the fifth delivery cleaned bowled him. Farley once again were favourites but with only a small amount of runs to be scored it was still both teams' game for the taking. With 10 required off the final over Jalil clean bowled the remaining batsman to give Farley the win. A tense but memorable victory in the end with plenty of excitement. 

After improving on the draw from last week, things are looking on the up for the Sunday boys.