Ross First XI entertained Old Hill at The Park on Saturday, June 2nd in what was always going to be a tough test for Ross as last year Old Hill won the league with Ross as runners up.

On winning the toss Old Hill elected to bat. After three overs from opener Harry Porter skipper Stuart Mair was forced to make a change when Harry injured his ankle. Stuart gave the ball to James Tiffen who immediately trapped Genders (7) LBW in his first over.

Old Hill opener Shivlock continued to punish any loose bowling from the Ross bowlers and had moved on to 51 before Jack Evans caught him at point off the bowling of Christiaan Ferreira.

The next wicket to fall was that of Jeffrey (8) when he was well caught in the deep by David Long. Ferreira was not to be out done either with a fantastic one handed caught and bowled off Jones (1) diving to his right. G Derham (1) was Ferreira's next wicket when David Long took an excellent sharp catch in the slips.

During the Old Hill innings some of the Ross fielding was not of their usual high quality. However, this changed with two run outs. The first was Foster (2) who hit the ball to backward square and set off only for Ferreira to run him out by 18 inches. The next run out was King (2) who hit the ball to point and set off for a quick single. Jack Evans pounced, threw the ball at the bowlers end to clip the top of the middle stump to run King out by three yards.

A final flurry of shots by Old Hill skipper Steve Derham (64*) finished the innings on 171 for 8 off their 50 overs. Pick of the Ross bowlers was James Tiffen 3 for 48 and Christiaan Ferreira 3 for 41.

After the interval Ross got off to poor start when opener Jack Evans (1) was bowled by Foster with the first ball of the third over. This brought Tiffen to the wicket to join Seb Warwick.

They moved the score on to 62 before Warwick (37) was caught off the bowling of Lewis. Old Hill started to gain the advantage, with a couple of Ross wickets falling in quick succession, but while Tiffen stayed at the wicket Ross had a chance. Tiffen was joined at the wicket by Michael Jeffryes and they built a partnership of 30 runs before Jeffryes (13) was caught behind off Lewis. David Long joined Tiffen at the crease and their partnership moved the advantage back to Ross before Long was caught off the bowling of Jeffryes.

Meanwhile Tiffen anchored the Ross innings and he and Ed Cinderey continued to eat away at the Old Hill target. It was left to Cinderey (4) to hit the winning runs with five overs to spare. Tiffen finished on (71*) and Ross won by two wickets.