18/08/2026
On a much cooler day than the recent weather, Stafford won the toss and elected to bowl.
With both teams missing a few players it seemed an evenly matched game.
Stafford struck in the 1st over, Tom removing the opener for 0. Loftus then settled and got off to a bit of a flyer as they reached 80-1 from 17 overs before Brad had Ramzan caught for 20.
Loftus now 82-2 and with Ranzan gone, it was the other opener M Ahmed that was dealing the damaging blows as he helped the score on to 127 before Acko, in his first over saw him advancing and bowled a wider delievery that spun past the bat and was well stumped by Quill.
Acko’s next over was a double wicket maiden, coupled with a Musa wicket as he took the ball from the other end and Loftus found themselves 141-6 off 25 overs.
S Bowes batted well with help from a few other batsmen and finished his innings unbeaten on 65 which had propelled Loftus to a very competitive innings total of 234-9. Acko with a really good spell taking 5-33 from 8 overs.
Stafford’s reply got off to the dream start. Brad, who by his own admission has not been batting well finally found his form again and everything his bat touched was middled to the boundary.
His 50 coming off just 26 balls. He and Quill put on 103 for the first wicket as Stafford stormed towards the rifle. Quill fell first chipping one to midwicket which started a simply remarkable Stafford collapse.
Wilson came and went before Brad was brilliantly caught by a low diving catch at mid-on to end his superb innings of 80 from just 42 balls.
Stafford fell to 119-6 in no time as the wickets tumbled and still required 115 runs to win which now looked unlikely. Acko was in at five and after a good midweek knock looked to punish the bad balls.
I Hussain and A Winspear, the bowlers which had done the damage having 4 overs each left, kept things tight, but the rare loose ball was helped usually over the rope for six by Acko.
Tom and Acko both batted with assurance and played very few if any bad shots. Then the change bowlers back on, the batting pair ran singles well and when Acko was on strike he waited for the bad ball and sent it packing.
Stafford had plenty of overs but few wickets as the pair took the score to 204 when Acko was given out LBW.
Tom was joined by Joe Norman next in. A quality innings from Tom and some vital runs by Joe got Stafford to 233-7.
Joe was stumped with 8 balls remaining. Musa was in at 9 and ran a quick single first ball to tie the scores. Then with the penultimate ball of the match, Musa hit a lofted cover drive over the head of daddy Pearson for four and the game was won.
A thrilling tie, an epic chase and a well earned win for The Place 🩵
