Bootham Park v Post Office July 16th 2006 at Bootham Park

Back Row: Nathan Ellison, Tim Wills, Jamie Case, John Patrick, Jack Gabbattis, Jack Sharples. Front Row: Jonathan Spratley, Nick Thompson, Pete Mitchell, Mac McMahon, Richard Todd.

Post Office (261) lost to Bootham Park (264-2) by 8 wickets

This was a great game. It had everything: big hitting, jammy bowling, comedy fielding, imaginative umpiring and the occasional flash of true competence. What's more, it was all played in a brilliant spirit.

A blistering sun and a pitch like bleached asphalt made it a toss I didn't want to lose, but lose it I did, and Glynn Botterill chose to bat. Jamie Case and Richard Todd got the bowling underway, working hard to extract any bounce and movement from the wicket. John Latham's bat dominated the opening overs, carving the ball to all parts with his customary brutality and moving to 50 before the team score had reached 70. Jamie Case, bowling an off-stump line to a strong legside field, nipped out Simon Burrows for 6. Then Nick Thompson, returning from injury, got rid of Furley for 5. Tim Wills chipped in with a couple of very valuable wickets, clean-bowling both Latham for 78 and the dangerous Gus Mackenzie for 44. The latter part of the innings was dominated by a fine innings from Glynn Botterill, whose clean-hitting took him to an undefeated 91.

Post Office finished on a huge looking 261 from 38 overs after an inspired spell of utterly chaotic bowling from John Patrick accounted for the last four wickets. This spell contained everything from perfect off-stump line and length to outright steak-and-kidney pie throwing. One ball from Patrick pitched less than half way down, ballooned into the air, evaded Tomlinson's somewhat agricultural swipe and plonked gently onto the top of middle stump. It somehow looked like it might be Mr Patrick's day. Maybe he should open the batting, I thought...

With debutant Jack Gabbatis matching Patrick stroke for stroke, the pair rocketed to a blistering stand of 123 at just under 10 an over. Gabbatis notched an impressive 52 before falling to a sharp catch by Botterill off Mackenzie's brisk medium pace. Jonathan Spratley came in at number 3 and proceeded to pick out the fielders with his usual precision before perishing to a catch off Watson's bowling for 11. Patrick continued to accumulate runs, nicking singles from good balls and peppering the boundaries with bad ones on his way to a near-chanceless 126 not out from 101 balls.

Not even the introduction of Messrs Latham and Botterill could stem the flow as the Bootham batsmen finished on 264-2 off 36.3 overs, a win by the flattering margin of 8 wickets. Spoilsport that I am, I had to nick the glory of hitting the winning runs on the way to a swift 33 not out, but the day undoubtedly belonged to John Patrick. It's not often you see a bowler of Glynn Botterill's quality hit out of the attack in one over worth 16 runs, but Patrick managed that and more in becoming only the fourth player (after Me, Mick Baines and the inevitable Mr Crowe) to score a century for the club.

All in all this was a fabulous game of cricket between two evenly-matched teams of thoroughly nice blokes and the excellent spirit continued back in the pub over a few jars of the finest (or at least coldest) ales.