Worcester Park won their fifth match out of six this season to remain top of a very evenly contested Surrey Championship Division Three last Saturday with a two-wicket win over second-placed Met Police.

Out of those five wins, four have been very tight, a fact that skipper Dom Fell believes shows the fighting qualities and self-belief of the side.

Arriving at the wonderful Imber Court Ground for this first vs second match, Park boasted an impressive looking batting line-up, and agreed to bowl first in order to chase down whatever the Police could muster.

Fell duly obliged by winning the toss and inserting the Home side.

After the disastrous fielding display of the previous week, the focus was on taking catches and backing up the bowlers. However the omens were not got when Bell induced an edge in the first over only to see the chance grassed at third slip.

This was the 6th or 7th drop of Bell from his previous 6-7 overs for the side!

It was Marshall though who provided the initial breakthrough, bowling Chinwera through his inside edge for 7, and when Bhatti finally edged Rob Bell the catch was taken (!!) by Rob Waite to everyone’s huge relief.

The Police were 28-2 and Rob Bell was finding movement and bounce from a good wicket.

It was to general disbelief from spectators and players when Saleem was adjudged not to have edged an attempted pull off Bell to the keeper Wilkinson, and Park’s problems began to mount as Marshall was forced to withdraw from the attack with a groin injury to add to the fractured finger he was playing with anyway.

More problems came when Joe Hill spilt his little finger grassing a difficult catch so he also had to be hidden in the field.

Saleem was making the most out of his life by playing aggressively, and the Park change bowlers struggled to contain him.

Things were not helped with more chances going down. With Porter playing very sensibly the Met Police played themselves into a strong position at 113-2.

The returning Rob Bell beat Porter for pace to trap him in front for 27, but Holman played with intent to add 58 with Saleem in good time.

Wagas Sagar was proving a life saver for Park, bowling a miserly spell from one end, making all batsmen work for their runs.

The Police were well set at 40 overs with the score 171-3 Park knew they may be chasing a huge total. Fell turned to Rob Waite who, in tandem with the ever accurate Sagar, turned the innings.

Waite bowled Holman for 31 with his first ball, and then Saleem for 87. The Police inning seemed to stagnate as the lower order batters struggled against both bowlers and Fell was able to set containing fields.

Keeper Jayasinghe was Sagar’s deserved wicket, but Waite cleaned up the tail with the help of a swift stumping by Wilkinson and a great boundary catch from Rob Hill. He finished with 6-21 from his 7 overs – a Park best, with Sagar ending with 1-58 from his 18 overs.

A final score of 223 all out was a great effort on a good wicket and quick outfield. The Met’s last 15 overs had only yielded 52 runs and cost 7 wickets.

Park knew the target was gettable, but the innings started in disastrous fashion with Park left at 36-4 with Bhatti finding movement and Grieg bowling a good line. Smith was caught and bowled, Waite

trapped on the crease and Bell unlucky to be given LBW considering the line being bowled. The loss of key man Rob Hill bought Scott Kent and Sagar together as Joe Hill’s finger injury has pushed him down the order.

They added 34 to stop the rush of wickets, but when Kent was given out caught behind off Bahtti (4-54) and Greig (2-76) bowled Marshall for 0 Park were 75-6 and looked dead in the water.

However, one of the League’s most prolific batsman coming in at no.8 is a very welcoming proposition and Joe Hill started fluently in partnership with Sagar who found the pitch to his liking and began to open his shoulders.

The 2 batsmen played positively throughout and the balance of the game began to tilt back to Park.

The run rate was achievable, with wickets the only issue. Sagar began to play some cracking shots, and launched into new ball when it was taken with 3 superb straight sixes.

The two added 91 precious runs before Fretwell bowled Hill off the inside edge for a vital 34. This led to Ryan being dismissed the next ball LBW.

The appeal was checked almost immediately only for the umpire who had given Bell and Kent out (and Saleem not out) to have triggered him to the bowling side’s obvious disbelief.

This left Park 164-8 as Fell joined Sagar needing 62 to win from around 12 overs. Sagar continued to play with positive intent as Fell looked comfortable from the outset knocking ball around.

Sagar bought up a superb hundred with a flowing cover drive and within a few overs Park were looking at a great win.

As Fell pulled Fretwell for a one bounce four, the heart seemed to go out of the home side and Sagar finished the game in fine style with another six over extra cover.

Sagar’s unbeaten knock of 117 from just 87 balls contained 14 fours and 4 sixes and was a mixture of timing and placement.

Fell’s second successive important contribution from no.10 of 24* proving the foil to Sagar’s aggression.

So, a fine win by 2 wickets another close finish to another great match. If Park can start taking their catches, the league is surely theirs!