At last a hot and sunny day for cricket though the warmth seemed to have affected the map reading ability of one or two of the Amersham players, and having lost the toss Amersham were forced to take the field with only 9 players present for the first 40 minutes, something that would ultimately cost Amersham a victory. NPL openers Royce (50) and Gardner (71) got away to a blistering start and put on 106 for the first wicket before Gardner was well caught by Saffery off Holt to then enable Amersham to regain some control through an excellent spell from Sidebottom ( 19-2-90-3) and a couple of wickets from Weston, and at 134-5 NPL were feeling some pressure for the first time in the afternoon. However some lusty hitting at the end from Watton (59) saw NPL to a challenging total of 241-7. In reply, Amersham got off to a steady start and once Bulman(64) and Rogers (80 no) came together a victory seemed on the cards as the left handed duo put on 91 in rapid time with the oppostion attack having little idea as to how to contain them. After Bulman perished with the total on 163, Rogers then took charge and despite sensible batting in support from Langley and Saffery, the long outfield made it hard to find the boundary and in increasing gloom and tension 17 were needed from the final two overs. Despite all best efforts, Amersham finished 6 runs short and an excellent game ended in a hard fought draw. There were many positives to take from the Amersham performance, though this writer was left to rue some costly dropped catches and absent fielders as he embraced a welcome beer after a long and hot day.