It is only their second visit to Newdigate and Putney CC already firmed their place as a friendly bunch who staged a surprise post-match presentation last year.

Both the teams were equally matched strength-wise. Heavy rain from the day before left the ground soft, the pitch dump. Bowling first was a natural call and Adam Sayer, Putney Captain chose Bowling winning the Toss.

And his bowlers baked his decision by taking wickets early – Newdigate openers returned to hut scoring 12 runs. Jack Bowley and Julian Jeffery anchored and started the damage control, the scoring rate was slow and just at the time Julian started to score freely, he fell to a ball that got stuck to pitch and came slow. Tanbir started a counter-attack and scored 25 runs in quick time. Thomas Clark played an IPL innings of 49 runs in 31 balls. Gritty Jack Bowley remained not out scoring 62 runs – his successive half century not out! Newdigate amassed a respectable total of 180/8 in 40 overs. J Sayer was the most successful bowler claiming 29/3 from his 5 overs; G Newark was not too far off with his 19/2 in 5 overs. Others shared the wickets.

Putney lost a wicket early, Jacob Moon’s quicker kissed the upper part of the off-stump-bell of the opener J Bickford Smith. Next few overs were a story of boundaries and power hitting. Clearly the wickets was not helping the quick bowlers. In came David Callcut and after years of interval, a Callcut claimed a wicket! On his very first over with a lovely leg spinner David foxed the highest scorer for Putney Rohit Deshmukh for his 33. The runs dried up with the introduction of slower bowlers; wickets kept falling in regular intervals for the visitors. However, Putney had an electric start and they were chasing a smaller target. At the completion of the 30th over the visitors were 124/6 – the game was in balance.

Every ball of the next 10 over was tensed, the players felt them, the crowd had their money worth seeing a sea-saw session. With every wicket fall Newdigate took the advantage but Putney clawed back by hitting a six or four in the next moment. In last two overs the visitors needed 16 to win and two very aggressive batsmen in the crease. After Jacob Moon’s well delivered 39th over, it was on to Sean Roast to defend 13 runs. Sean’s first five balls went for 5 runs; Putney needed 6 off the last ball and Sean delivered a perfect yorker ball to seal a 5 runs victory for Newdigate.

Putney batters did not give up without a fight and everyone chipped in for them. Soham Bendre (29), Adam Sayer (14) and Nic Saunders (12) carried on with the initial advantage but one of them needed to play a longer innings. Newdigate bowlers did well in the middle and death overs to make up for the initial damage. Sean Roast and William Bowley took 2 wickets each and the other wickets were shared.