Oh, how disappointing, we lost by one measly run to Thornley CC this week batting second on a flat pitch. We seemed to have it won at 210-0 then just didn't get enough runs in the final ten. We've got a mountain to climb to win the league (8-point gap) but if we beat Kings of Spin in a couple of weeks we may have a chance.

Just a quick note to congratulate Alan Marsh on his maiden five-wicket haul in Battrick. Alan was man of the match for his 5-42, taking three wickets in the final over of the innings, as Connells restricted third-placed White Cottage to 235-9 in their 50 overs after being asked to bowl. Connells chased down the runs with just over 2 overs to spare, though we were 209-2 before four wickets went down in very rapid succession, with Heskey and Skalding knocking off the winning runs. Cooper bagged his third hundred of the season (118) in a huge stand with the returning-to-form Adu (88).

Connells are now a clear second, 12 points behind the evidently miles-too-good-for-IV Kings-of-Spin, but 8 points ahead of the rest. It will beggar belief if Connells don't make it out of IV next season with the squad we have.

Don't say things like that Chris, a pair of Kings-of-Spin standard teams could get promoted into our league - they only came up this year!

White Cottage are actually a very similar standard team. Look at their stats and they could well prove to be our main rivals next year. We need to make sure that we keep ahead of these guys if we want promotion next year.

Actually, Kings-of-Spin came down last year, and were beaten narrowly in a playoff by a flying Ducks team with England international Daniell in their team. With them winning our league by a street they'll hopefully replace a really poor III team who will drop into our league having been caned repeatedly this season. We beat White Cottage twice this year so we should be the strongest of the two teams, and we need to believe we're the best as well as trying to be!! Aside from Ducks, we have always been stronger than promoted V teams, so I'm optimistic.