Doctors 154 for 3

Yeovil Hospital 148 for 5

Previous matches between these sides have been highly competitive with some tight finishes and when Doctors elected to have first use of a beautiful batting strip at Cannington College they knew that they needed to score well.

Keith Powell and Alan Dunkley gave them just the start they needed with an opening partnership of 41 in 5 overs. With Powell providing beefy drives and Dunkley finessing late cuts the score would have been even higher but for shrewd field placings and good ground fielding by the visitors. Dunkley (17) departed caught behind off Amjad Parvaiz (2-31) but Powell kept the scoreboard rattling while Graham Fergusson played himself in quietly. Eventually Powell (33) succumbed to an excellent Parvaiz inswinging yorker and for a while Fergusson and Will Chandler were content to accumulate in ones and twos. The lull only lasted for a couple of overs until the expected Fergusson onslaught materialised. With his faithful bat sporting a terminal crack down most of its length and losing larger and larger chunks of wood as the innings went on the barrage of drives and pulls grew rapidly fiercer. Chandler (16) fell to a one handed catch at cover off John Jones (1-26) but Fergusson (62 n.o.) and Jeremy Budd (9 n. o.) kept up relentless pressure until Doctors’ self-imposed target of 150 had been reached.

On such a perfect pitch the target was by no means unreachable and Doctors were obliged to John Down (1-11) and James Powell for a tightly controlled opening spell which put Yeovil behind the clock. When they came off the batting pair of Jones and Ash Clarke had got their eye in and both began to batter the change bowlers. Jones (19) miscued Steve Witts (1-36) to James Powell at backward point but Parvaiz (17), batting with a runner, played a sparkling cameo until the inevitable mix up led to the runner being run out by the quick-thinking Phil Barker. The run rate had dropped a bit but Clarke found the ideal partner in Mohammed Khan who hit the ball hard and profited from the rapidly worsening light and the fielders’ inability to pick out the dark ball against the dark background of trees. The only moment of controversy came when Khan, on 10, was stumped way out of his ground and had set off back to the pavilion when he was inexplicably given not out. An excellent penultimate over by James Powell left 18 needed from the final over, to be bowled by Sam Powell with the dangerous Clarke on strike. The requirement had come down to 7 from the last 3 balls when Clarke (45) gave the bowler the charge. Powell (2-11) saw him coming, pushed the ball wider and Fergusson had the bails off in a flash as the umpire signalled a wide. The new batsman was in an unenviable position and lost his middle stump to the last ball, trying to hit the six which would have tied the match