A second successive win was not to be; on another beautiful summers day at Brook, a strong Stoics side batting first, lost wickets relatively early - but with 160 for 5 on the board at lunchtime a significant total looked likely and that indeed turned out to be the case; 293 for 8 at the end which included a hard hit and rapid century from opposing skipper James While, 66 from Kiwi Nicoll, and 35 from ex SA provincial first class player Trevor Webster. Of the Ramblers bowlers Hubert Bland bowled long and well without luck, with skipper Simon Swainson rotating the other contenders for being hit for 6 over the closeish pavilion side boundary.

A stiff target therefore - which was not made easier by the early loss of 4 wickets for 45, 40 of them made in 25 minutes by Ryan Jacobs. A stand between the Wood twins, James (9) and Nick (29), took the team to 90, and an ebullient 36 from Hugh Gauntlett helped the side past the century, but wickets kept falling, and survival became the object. However with two wickets left at the beginning of the 20 this was going to be difficult, and so it proved, with the Ramblers succumbing for 151 - a winning margin of 142 runs for the visitors, who were very pleased as they have not beaten us in recent matches.

STOICS Innings:

Geller c Sub b Chibisa 19 

Smith b Bland 3 b Hood 0

Cameron c & b N Wood 2 

Wootton b Jacobs 36 

Nicoll c Carthew b Davenport 6 

While run out 102 

Webster c Swainson b Davenport 35 

Rossi b Swainson 14 

Shelford not out 9 

Hood not out 5 

O’Gorman did not bat 

TOTAL: 293-8 dec 

Bowling: 

Bland 20 4 66 1

Wood N 5 0 20 1

Chibisa 9 3 26 1

Jacobs 8 1 29 1

Katzler 3 0 31 0

Carthew 2 0 14 0

Davenport 7 0 67 2

Swainson 5 0 23 1

RAMBLERS' innings:

Jacobs b Webster 40

Swainson c Cameron b Hood 0

Carthew c (wk) b Webster 4

Chibisa b Hood 0

Wood J c ? b Shelford 9

Wood N c (wk) b Nicoll 29

Gauntlett H.T. c ? b O’Gorman 36

Walker J run out 0

Davenport not out 9

Bland c ? b Webster 12

Katzler b Webster 1

TOTAL: 151

Bowling: 

Hood 4 0 15 2

Webster 9.1 2 33 4

O‘Gorman 11 2 32 1

Shelford 10 3 42 1

Nicoll 2 1 4 1

Smith 2 0 15 0