It was the Twycross Captain, Machin, who won the toss and elected to bowl on a decent looking pitch, but Huncote made a steady starting, losing only Frank Hubbard, LBW for 4 to Alexander. Pete Lill looked to be building confidence, but the introduction of the Twycross skipper, and crafty spinner, changed the innings. Lill was caught at square leg for 12, and Spencer, last week’s big scorer, was bowled second ball. Pete Kirby came in and looked to support Crossley, who soon reached another quality fifty.

Machin though was bowling a tidy a line and accounted for both Crossley, bowled, and Kirby, stumped. Driver and Sommer came together and looked to build using some crafty running, but Machin picked up his fifth wicket, Driver easily caught of a thick inside edge. Knibbs joined Sommer and they looked good, until one crazy run too many ended with Knibbs run out for a solid 12. Frost then picked up his first wicket, having Scrimshire caught behind without troubling the scorers. Wayne Smith batted well with Sommer for the last few overs, with the two ending 12 not out and 23 not out respectively.

The innings total of 147-8 did not seem to be enough and Twycross were in confident spirit at tea. Machin was the pick of the bowlers, with 5-44 off 13 overs. A combination of flight and varied pace, enough to snare a number of key batsmen. With usual opening bowler and last years star man, Tim Kirby, missing Huncote, perhaps had room to worry.

Wayne Smith opened with Paul Knibbs and both looked to keep it tight early on, before Smith had Allman caught behind by Hubbard for 1. Horton soon followed his fellow opener, clean bowled by Smith for 7. Frost and Machin began about building the total but a clever change by Huncote skipper Crossley, saw Adcock into the attack. This had the desired effect catching the Away Skipper LBW for 11.

Frost continued on his way, hitting good boundaries off of Driver and Sommer, including a well timed 6 over midwicket. Holland offered good support and with the score approaching 100 Twycross looked in a promising position. The game all changed when Adcock, bowling a tight spell, enticed the impressive Frost from his crease, and keeper Frank Hubbard did the rest, claiming yet another stumping. Great bowling from the young off spinner, using a flighted arm ball to gain the key wicket.

Wayne Smith was brought back, and in an inspired spell, he picked up 4 more wickets, including the last man, Jesson. Sommer supported from the other end with 2 wickets as Twycross never gave up the hope of claiming an unlikely win. Two sharp catches from Crossley showed his quality and a great team performance from Huncote. Final word to MOM Wayne Smith whose two spells showed both pace, and control.

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