The long drive to Coundon was overseen by some lovely hot weather and a tough game would surely lie ahead. Having played them earlier in the week in the cup we expected both teams to have slightly different line ups and we were proved right. Coundon opted to bat in the heat and L.Bell (50) proved to be the main thorn in our side.

Some poor dropped catches meant that the only bowler to be fruitless was Cassell after bowling a great spell of another 10 overs. Otherwise wickets were shared around and just as the game threatened to get away from us Ross Thubron (3-35) and Phil Randle (3-24) stepped up to pull it back. With the clouds descending after the crazy heat experienced earlier, Coundon were all out for 153. A tea comprising of hot dogs never fails to go down well with the Littletown lads and we made our way out for the chase with the sun gone and the clouds looming.

Fortunately for Littletown we had a couple of batsmen in scintillating form that enabled us to take the fight to the Coundon bowling attack. Following Gregg Arundel’s departure for 12, Dan Pearson and Phil Bennett really set about the task in hand. No fewer than 19 boundaries were shared in their superb stand and they raced us towards victory inside 28 overs with Dan ending on 77 not out and Phil ending on 50 not out. The win proved the prefect tonic to put to bed the cup defeat earlier and also provided a platform to go into the Belmont game with confidence tomorrow, albeit with a vastly changed side again. Still, 20 points keeps us within a shout at the top.