The 2s arrived at a picturesque Hambledon with hopes of avenging their defeat earlier in the season against Ollie Hickman’s Hambledon. Both sides sat 4th and 5th respectively in the table, with both sides looking to advance further up the table. The 2s were a much changed side with David Main returning to the XI along with the ‘Best Beckett’ Simon Beckett - back from a three year hiatus after a string of injuries and the realisation that he wasn't a 20-year-old anymore had kept him on the sidelines since 2021. The 2s also welcomed Benet Horan for his 2nd XI debut and Ben Cooley, back after his 5-13 earlier in the season against Headley.

Max won the toss (again) and elected to bowl on a grassy, yet hard wicket with Cooley and Jezz Passmore opening up. Both bowlers found movement early, with the ball evading fielders around the ground before Jezz induced a top edge to take the first wicket of Hambeldon’s dangerous opener. In strode Hambledon’s captain, Ollie Hickman - who had sent the 2s to all parts earlier in the season and was soon into his work. The Grayswood bowlers bowled some great, tight lines through the middle overs, with Rohan and David in particular stemming the scoring rate, resulting in the second wicket being taken by David soon after the drinks break. Grayswood continued to pick off wickets, with Max, Jezz and Cooley each taking one whilst keeping the rate low. However, with 35 overs gone and the score at only 128-5, Hickman once again put Grayswood to the sword. First Jezz, then Max were sent for a string of sixes into the houses - along with a number of fours, to power Hambledon to 181-5 off their 40 overs. Grayswood needed a good start with the bat to win the game.

Kendo and Adie strode to the middle with the task of getting Grayswood off to a good start, and once again Matt was straight out the blocks, punishing any wide or full balls to the boundary. As Adie top edged to lose his wicket, Matt was joined by Benet and the two started to develop a partnership, with Benet hitting two textbook cover drives to advance the score to 40-1 after 9 overs. After Benet was dismissed, Ben C joined Matt and the score raced along, with both striking boundaries to all parts of the wicket, including a large six over the road from Matt. However, here Hambledon changed their bowlers and soon the squeeze was on, with Ben being dismissed by some good variations in pace by the Hambledon off-spinner, closely followed by Matt. Simon and Chetan stuck around and struck some important boundaries before the former was dismissed. Skipper Max now joined Chetan and struck a string of boundaries to take Grayswood within 45 with 9 overs to bowl. However, once again, Hickman was to prove Grayswood’s undoing, bowling a perfect yorker to dismiss Max and then stifling the run-rate before dismissing Rohan in the final over to leave David two balls to play out for the draw.

Overall a spirited performance from the 2s in the face of some high quality batting and bowling, falling only 19 runs short of the target. The game was played in a great spirit throughout and beers on the outfield afterwards were appreciated by all. The 2s face table-toppers Badshot Lea next week in what looks to be a tough encounter.