Impressive performances by young players were the dominant feature of an exciting match at Ramsbury where Corsham 4ths ran out winners by one wicket in an nail-biting finish against Swindon 4ths on Saturday.
Corsham Captain Martin Hick won the toss and, as usual, asked the opposition to bat, under the most welcome warm sunshine.
The Swindon openers, Peter Sore and Probo, found the lively pace and movement of John Siggins and Gareth Moorhouse a handful, with Siggins unlucky not to be rewarded when chances went to hand in the slips.
However, both batsmen were looking to take the attack to the Corsham bowlers, with Sore in particular happy to hit through the line of anything pitched up.
Having scored 25, it was Sore who was the first to go when a short, quick delivery from Siggins kept low to breach his defence and take his off stump out of the ground after the bowler had failed to cling onto a skier off the preceding ball.
After an uncertain innings, Probo eventually found a Corsham fielder, and was caught by Gareth Moorhouse to give Siggins his second wicket.
Hussain and Wilts U-15 player, Dean Williamson, steadied the Swindon innings, and aided by some soporific fielding by the Corsham team, took the score well past the 100 at four an over to prompt a change in the bowling, as Ben Sykes took over from Siggins, and Martin Hick relieved Moorhouse.
Neither bowler looked particularly likely to part the Swindon batsmen, and what chances were presented were all spurned as Corsham's fielding deteriorated.
However, after settling into some sort of rhythm, Sykes eventually made the breakthrough when Williamson presented much-needed catching practice to Adrian Smith in the covers and was dismissed for 38.
Batting with assurance well beyond his thirteen years, John Sore joined Hussain, and helped himself to a quick 25 runs before the return of Moorhouse to the attack saw the youngster hole out to Martin Hick.
Hussain attempted to push the score along, and after being dropped again, hit the shot of the innings through extra cover to take his score past 50.
Eleven runs later his innings came to an end when Siggins found the edge of his bat and was well caught at slip by Tony Shardlow for a patient 61.
Andy Badel was run out attempting a third run, but Colin Wells kept up the momentum with boundaries off Moorhouse.
Swindon Captain, Kevin Thomson, was bowled by Siggins for four, and Alan Phipps added nine in quick time before presenting Liam Sumsion with a catch to give Siggins his fifth wicket.
The allotted overs ran out with the Swindon score at 219 for eight with Wells not out 20 and John McKenly not out 6.
With the Corsham 3rd XI fixture unable to take place due to conditions at South Wraxall where the fixture against Swindon 3rds had been due to take place, it was 3rd XI Captain, Alistair Goddard who opened the innings with John Gale.
Goddard was quickly in his stride, taking three boundaries off Dean Williamson, before the bowler extracted extra bounce from the pitch and found the top edge of Goddard's bat to give Penfold a shoulder high catch behind the stumps.
The out-of-form Gale was the Williamson's next victim as he was well beaten by an off-cutter that kept low and was bowled for four.
Despite the early setbacks, Corsham's reply was steadied by the youth of Mark Hick and the experience of Adrian Smith.
The pair took the Corsham score to 64 before Smith was bowled by John McKenly for 19. This brought another of Corsham's young cricketers to the middle in the form of Liam Sumsion.
Sumsion set about the Swindon bowling and turned the match in Corsham's favour. Hick was content to give his partner the strike at every opportunity and Sumsion's maiden half-century came up in just 31 balls.
The pair put on 122 in just twelve overs when Hick lofted Swindon's 13-year old leg-spinner, John Sore, and was caught in the deep by Colin Wells just two runs short of a deserved half-century.
Sumsion went the same way the very next ball as he mishit Sore to the same fielder to bring his match-winning innings to an end at 89, which contained ten fours and five sixes.
Two runs later, John Siggins found Peter Sore, the only fielder on the mid-wicket boundary, and was dismissed for a duck.
He was replaced by young wicket-keeper batsman, Will Wales who supported Gareth Moorhouse to take the Corsham total past the 200 mark.
Moorhouse never looked comfortable against John Sore's leg-spin, but the Corsham all-rounder managed 12 runs before playing too early at a Sore delivery and was bowled to leave the Corsham score on 206 for 7.
Tony Shardlow couldn't make up his mind whether or not to leave a rising delivery from Sore alone, and only proceeded to run his first ball off the face of the bat into the waiting gloves of Penfold behind the stumps to give the young leg-spinner five wickets.
Ben Sykes joined Wales, and somehow survived to the end of the over despite having no idea how to play Sore's legspin.
Dean Williamson returned to the attack to give Swindon's rising hopes of victory some impetus, but Wales kept up the required run rate with competent pulls to the midwicket boundary to take the Corsham total to 216.
The inevitable happened in Sore's next over when Sykes' flail at the ball resulted in a slip catch to McKenly to bring the Corsham Captain to the middle, complete with a runner after pulling a calf muscle during the Swindon innings.
Hick managed to see out the rest of the over and with four runs required, it was left to Will Wales to take Corsham past the winning post with an on-drive to give Corsham victory by the narrowest of margins.
13-year old John Sore finished as the pick of the Swindon bowlers with 6 for 55 in 11 overs, and another Swindon youngster, Penfold, had a good day behind the stumps.
Corsham can be encouraged by the performance of their younger contingent who batted with competence and confidence, but the team need to improve their fielding and catching if they are to become serious contenders for honours.
Swindon 4ths 10 points, Corsham 4ths 20 points.
John Gale (Corsham CC)
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