Having had the previous three league games cancelled due to the heavy July rain, it was with some relief that Barley were finally able to play a competitive home fixture once again. Following the toss, Barley Skipper Brian Symes elected to bat on what appeared a good hard track. Barley openers Jamie Walters and Sami Ullah had no luck though against Fox 10-5-18-2 and Dunham 10-4-23-1 and in the third over Ullah, having just played a deft cut shot for 4, was clean bowled the very next ball by Dunham. Fox, bowling left arm over, was swinging it in to the right handers from the Windmill End, and in rapid succession had first Walters, bowled with one that hopped up off a good length to dismiss him for a duck and then next over he repeated the delivery against Rick Wilson, out for just 2. Symes and Chris Markham then came together and attempted to rebuild the innings as Barley had slumped to 9 for 3 in just the fifth over. Symes used attack as the best form of self-defence and quickly struck a couple of fours. Markham went about his task more serenely, glancing singles and pushing the ball through gaps in the field. When the drinks break came in the 20th over the partnership had moved the score on to 47. There’s often a wicket after drinks so Symes duly obliged and drove a straight one back to Knibbs 9-1-44-3 who smartly took the catch dismissing the Barleyman for 22. Ali Wallace then came in, and in his usual fashion thrashed 22 off 7 balls and was then out caught on the boundary from a top edge. Chris Allan then calmed things down for a while and farmed the strike to Markham as he maintained his good play. Eventually instinct took over and in attempting a square cut off Slator 9.4-0-56-4 Allan was brilliantly caught behind by the Longstowe keeper for 6. Wakeel Shah then went for a golden duck before Jason Busby came in and played steadily before being caught behind for 7. As Markham continued to plunder the bowling, Leigh Stewart became Knibbs’ third victim, bowled for 6. Jimmy Ghani ended up 1 not out as in the 39th Markham proceeded to strike two mighty sixes and in charging down the wicket to go after a third was stumped for 71 off Slator. Barley ended up with just 151 all out, a total that Longstowe were optimistic about chasing down.

In reply, Key and Lenton found it hard going against Shah 7-1-15-5 and Ghani 6-0-23-0 and in the 5th over Shah bowled Lenton for 6 with a beauty. Fox, who had scored 50 against Barley earlier in the season, could only make 6 this time before being caught by Markham off Shah. Iles then went for 7, bowled by by Sami Ullah 10-2-25-2, and Longstowe looked in some trouble. Key, now partnered by Wareham steadied things for a while until Stewart 8-1-23-1 lured him into a drive. He missed the ball and before he could regain his ground Allan had removed the bails. Whether the Barley keeper actually had the ball at the time is unknown but the Longstowe player accepted his fate and returned to the pavilion for an excellent 27. Wallace 3-0-16-0 was expensive so quickly gave way to a second spell from Shah. He took three more wickets and was well backed up with two wickets from Symes 4-0-1-2, including Slator who scored 30. Once he had gone, Longstowe were soon all out ending up on 130, 22 short of their target. Barley’s victory keeps the pressure on league leaders Newport.