A beautiful warm early summer evening on the glorious setting of the upper pitch at Rothamsted and location of the last match win over Scratchers. It was all set-up for the winning streak to continue, until Crabtree bowled the first few overs.

Stauvers making his debut as opener with Spencer started in fine form, with a few lusty blows, most of which found Killigrew fielders and one fine shot for four. The pitch immediately showed some variable bounce and with some accurate swing bowling the wickets began tumble. Spencer caught behind and with no 'snickometer' to verify the noise, the umpire raised his finger and Spencer trudged off. In quick session Stauvers, Barton and Button all departed and DWP were in trouble with 3 wickets down and only 8 runs scored.

The scene was set for a strong middle order performance and fresh from his conditioning in San Francisco, Peter Church came to the middle. True to form, Peter maintained his reputation for lofty straight driving and soon had the Crabtree fielders scattering to the boundaries as 3 fours were hit in quick succession. Peter needed good support from the other end, but this was not forthcoming as the wickets continued to tumble fast, with Reed, Hook, Winfield and Holmes all falling short.

Reed's performance training on his bike, did not extend to his psychological training as he promised himself not to try and smash the ball, but he could not resist and was clean bowled, trying to smash. Winfield was stumped whilst casually standing outside his crease, the omens were not good for a competitive score.

At 49 for 9 Captain Cook comes to the crease with Wilson not out as the last pair. The glum DWP batters sat on the boundary contemplating the situation and concluded that at least we will get an early beer tonight. Not so, Cook plays a fine captain innings and nudges for singles as well as 3 very neat leg side fours and with great support from Wilson, DWP reach a total of 69, using all 20 overs. With a very variable wicket and good bowling from Crabtree, DWP showed some fighting spirit in the end to reach a defendable score of 70.

Due to the physical limitations with some players (i.e. knackered) it was agreed that a bowler can have a maximum of 3 overs and this played straight to the advantage of DWP. Winfield and Spencer opened the bowling attack, knowing only wickets and tight overs would be enough. In one of the best opening spells for DWP, both bowlers were aggressive and tight in not conceding runs.

Spencer bowling with venom took 2 wickets and fired a couple down that even cleared keeper Reed, who was in for a very active night. Winfield bowled a full length and was getting the ball to in-swing, clean bowling successive batsmen and delivering a hat-trick bowl, which was blocked by the Crabtree bat. At 16 for 4 from the opening 6 overs, the game was on and DWP were rejuvenated in the field, with tight and committed fielding, as well as a lot of chatter. Stauvers had a fine evening throwing his body at any bowl that came his way to stop runs and Holmes trusty as ever with his sturdy Scouse shins stopping run at short mid-on.

The pressure on Crabtree continued as Button and Church also delivered aggressive and economical bowling and at 32 for 5 at the end of the tenth over, the match was finely balanced. Reed was having a fine match behind the stumps and took a fine catch off Hooks bowling, and gloved a couple of hard chances from Button.

Wilson, Hook and Holmes continued the fine bowling but the remaining Crabtree batters played a very controlled and balance innings, taking few chances and keeping the runs ticking over and despite the sixth wicket falling, Crabtree achieved the winning runs in the 17th over.

DWP and Crabtree retired to the Engineer for a few beers and a very nice chilli, both feeling that they had played a competitive game of cricket in the right spirit and DWP look to take that into the next match.