Albury 182-9 (T.Davies 5-35) lost to HOF's 185-7 (Winslet 46, Davies 44*, D.Haywood 35)

Headley Old Freemen's continued their recent good form with a hard fought win up at City of London Freemen's School.

The school pitch was far from its usual belter. In fact the strip H.O.F had been controversially stuck on was brown sticky and slow, and the stage was set for some attritional cricket. Headley won the toss, elected to field and Tom Davies provided the home side with the perfect start, with his brisk away swingers accounting for both openers, both caught well behind the wicket by Paul Holliday and Steve Winslet.

The slow pitch made it consistently difficult for the Albury batsman; the next to go was the skipper, who jabbed a Waller in-swinger straight to Moss at short leg, whose superb diving catch caused a minor earthquake. Headley had been disappointed not to be allowed the use of the adjacent strip, and stationing Moss right in the middle of it throughout the innings seemed like the mature response to the CLFS snub. School politics aside, Albury were soon in deep trouble as an innocuous delivery from James Midmer was skied right into the air by their No.4, with Moss again taking a decent catch.

With the score 40-4 from 20 overs and the remainder of the Albury line up having an average age of about 15, Headley were confident of an early finish, but the Albury youngsters fought creditably to bat out the remaining overs, although the scoring remained slow against the combined efforts of Waller, Midmer, Moon and Winslet. The main impetus to the Albury innings came from the hard hitting Reddy at No.6, who smashed an entertaining half century in quick time, although he was repeatedly dropped by generous Headley fielders who must have been enjoying watching his innings. There were also some stubborn knocks either side of him, before Davies returned to rip out the tail, with 5-35 reflective of a decent spell of genuine medium pace. Grant Waller also returned, but with less success; he was chipped back over his head by a 13 year old before watching James Moss roll over the boundary carrying the ball. Albury finished on 182-9 dec from 46 overs.

Despite its stickiness, the pitch carried few demons and HOF's were confident of grinding out the chase. Openers Simon Camp and David Haywood got things off to a decent start, with Camp looking watchful before smashing his trademark cover drive for a majestic maximum. Sadly Camp departed soon after to the persevering Albury opener Owen, and when Moss and Gibbon both fell cheaply to the same bowler, Headley were in trouble at 50-3. Haywood had batted sensibly for 35, but he became tied down by a decent spell from a young Westbrook, before falling to the opposition skippers tidy off breaks. 60-4.

HOF's were then indebted to a hard hitting knock from Steve Winslet, who started watchfully but was soon muscling a variety of drives and cuts to the boundary. He was given support by a combination of Haywood, Holliday and Moon, but during Winslets domination of the bowling all three fell cheaply, and when the tall right hander himself was then out for a well made 46, the situation looked bleak at 120-7,

With the Albury openers Owen and Aston back on and bowling well the game was evenly poised. Fortunately for HOF's Tom Davies and James Midmer remained calm with an assured partnership to close out the game. Davies made himself a shoe in for the man of the match award with a number of thumping hits both over the top and through the covers sending Albury back onto the defensive. Midmer was slightly more reserved, but the compact right hander kept the scoreboard ticking over, and with Owen now bowled out the Albury skipper turned to both his own off spin, and a 13 year old seamer, neither of whom could halt the rampant Davies.

With just 2 needed from the final three overs, and the famed Grant Waller still to bat, HOF's were confident, and Davies smashed a short ball through midwicket to bring up a crucial win. With three games to go Headley remain ensconced in mid table, but have the chance to bloody the nose of a few of the top sides as the season draws to a close.