A second match against Gardenfields in a matter of weeks gave the Saddoes the opportunity to go one better after the previous meeting resulted in a first ever tied match for either side. Fortunately for the Saddoes they ended up as winners in a victory that was almost embarrassingly easy. The opposition later admitted that the team who turned out were not anywhere near their strongest 11, but the margin of victory was such that the grisly horror of their score book was not surrendered for analysis after the match (a fact which makes much of this match report guesswork and explains the partial scorecard below).

With Saddoes short of numbers at the start as usual the toss was rendered irrelevant and Richard & Graham strode out to open the batting. They accumulated runs steadily against innocuous bowling and sloppy fielding - Graham being dropped 4 times in all and Gardenfields putting down at least 7 catches in the innings. Once Richard reached the retirement target of 25, however, the shackles were thrown off and he started swinging the bat. He bludgeoned 16 off one over, including a massive 6 over square leg before retiring on 40 - which could be a Saddoes record for a 20-over match. His score would have been 42 had the fielder on the boundary at long on admitted to treading on the line as he collected the ball. At the other end Graham's innings was also ending in dramatic fashion, hitting 4, 4, 6 and 4 in his final over before finally being caught at the 5th attempt and marching off with 35 runs to his name.

The opening pair were replaced by Tim and David who carried on milking the bowling, but at a slightly more pedestrian pace, not least because David was still protecting his recovering hamstring and limited himself to just running singles. He avoided running altogether when hitting several impressive boundaries including a fine 6 down the slope. Tim soon reached retirement and was replaced by Shaun making his first appearance of the summer. He was clearly rusty and his progress was sluggish by comparison with what had gone before. He was eventually bowled swinging the bat and was joined on the sidelines by the retiring David. By now there were few overs left and wickets started to fall more frequently. Before his innings Jan had threatened to play out a maiden over in Boycottesque fashion, but forgot all thoughts of defence once he reached the middle. Swinging wildly at the second ball he faced, he was dismissed by an excellent catch as the wicketkeeper dived to his right. Simon W and Michael, temporarily setting aside all thoughts of their averages, perished in suicidal run outs trying to push the total ever higher, and John was left as the not out batsman having not faced a ball. The total of 150 looked daunting as long as the Saddoes bowled well.

The absence of the Gardenfields scorebook means that the details of the reply are a little hazy. What is known is that the Saddoes bowled and fielded very well, took 9 wickets and won by a margin in the region of 70 runs. Jan and Tim opened the bowling with tight, accurate spells. Both took a wicket - Jan taking a sharp caught & bowled chance acrobatically and Tim removing the opener's off stump in trademark fashion. Simon W gave Gardenfields a glimmer of hope when he bowled an over of gentle swing and got smacked to the boundary several times - something that appears to be happening rather more frequently than this correspondent would like. Skipper Graham sensibly removed him from the attack and brought on Simon K and Michael. Simon K reasserted some pressure on the batsmen and was rewarded when he hit the stumps in the middle of an accurate spell. Michael looked like missing out on his almost customary "two-fer" when first Simon K spilled a catch that came to him very quickly at short midwicket and then Matt missed a more difficult chance at short third man. Order was restored, however, when Simon K made amends in the next over, clinging on to a similar chance to the one he dropped. Michael's second wicket arrived when Shaun jostled with David at square leg to claim a skier, both of them calling for the catch, but the taller Shaun winning out in the end.

Matt bowled well on only his second appearance for the Saddoes and chipped in with a wicket - well caught by David at square leg. Richard's typically hostile spell was rewarded with a caught and bowled dismissal which he sprinted down the wicket to claim, almost breaking his ankle in a rabbit hole in the process. David, bowling at the death in a hopeless chase for Gardenfields picked up a wicket in each over he bowled, the first a stumping by Graham at the 2nd or 3rd attempt, and then hitting the stumps with the first ball of the second over. John and Shaun also bowled a tight spells, but were unlucky to remain wicketless on a night when the spoils were generally shared around.

Gardenfields at least batted out the full 20 overs, but were a long way short of a competitive total and the teams subsequently retired to separate locations in the confusion of the folk festival taking over St Michael's village, the losers to lick their wounds and the Saddoes to relish the rare experience of an easy win.