Stoke Fleming CC V President's XI. Stoke Fleming, 155 all out, beat President's XI, 58 all out, by 97 runs

Last Sunday Stoke Fleming extended their unbeaten run with a victory over an eleven assembled to represent their president, Andrew Jarrold.

While always competitive, the game was rather less serious and hostile than others in the fixture list.

This though in no way dampened the motivation of the president's men to put one over on their hosts, and with Stoke making a relatively low score of 155 they seemed in with a chance.

They put Stoke on the back foot early on when opening batsman John Hardy was out for just four, caught by Ben Brown off Ashley.

This brought Noel Edmonds in to join his brother Steve and the earlier setback of losing Hardy's wicket was soon forgotten as these two built a fifty partnership.

Anything loose was dispatched to the boundary with ease and a big score looked on the cards.

This all changed in the space of two overs when three somewhat contentious lbw decisions saw the score slump from 70 for 1 to 70 for 4.

Steve Edmonds (20) and Daniel Hardy (0) both went in the same over, victims of Andy Jessop, and when Lawrence Shields was given the verdict in his favour, Noel Edmonds followed his sibling back into the pavilion, having hit a very good 31.

The president's side were now right back in the game and Stoke never recovered as wickets fell at regular intervals. The president himself took the catch to dismiss Sam Duberley for 16 off Brown, and he then came on to bowl and took three wickets, starting with skipper Eddie Church, who was caught behind by Pete Foster for 14 and then both Graham and Glen Black for two and 17 respectively.

This reduced Stoke to 142 for 8.

Young Ted Duberley (10) and Mike Perkin, nine not out, pushed the final total up to 155 and Jessop and Jarrold took three wickets each for the President's XI.

After an excellent tea, prepared and served by Amanda Jarrold and other family members, the president's side sent out Jessop and Matt McCann to embark on chasing down the Stoke score and win back the prestigious and handsome President's Trophy. With the forecast rain rapidly approaching and quick runs therefore needed, their task was made more difficult with some very good bowling from Stoke's opening pair, Noel Edmonds and Dan Hardy.

Edmonds bowled very tightly with some unplayable deliveries and Hardy was niggardly as well. So it was no surprise when in his third over Edmonds bowled McCann for five.

After five overs his figures were 1 for 6 and this became 4 for 6 just one over later when he had Jessop caught behind by his brother Steve for six and then Jarrold (2) and Shields (0), both lbw.

With a 'five-fer' beckoning, he secured it with the final ball of his spell when Ted Duberley held the catch to dismiss Rahman for four, giving him final figures of eight overs, six maidens, 5 for 6. A great piece of bowling to add to his 37 with the bat.

Hardy's eight-over spell was wicketless but in conceding only 15 runs was an admirable stint of supportive bowling which put the president's batsmen under pressure and saw them collapse to 19 for 5 after 16 overs.

Things got no better for the president's men when Perkin and Ted Duberley took over the bowling duties for Stoke.

Perkin was among the wickets in his opening over and young Ted Duberley would have grabbed a couple in his four overs had catches been held.

The president's side mounted a late rearguard action with Ashley hitting 15, Foster five and Hussain nine, but the outcome was by this point irreversible. Noel Edmonds brought proceedings to a close when he took a sharp catch in the slips off Glen Black to round off a good day for himself and for Stoke with a 97-run winning margin.

Perkin ended up with three wickets and Glen Black and Sam Duberley one each as the game finished just before the evening rain set in.

The trophy was presented later in the Green Dragon and then placed back into the trophy cabinet.

On Sunday Stoke have another defence on their hands when they take on Aveton Gifford at Venn Lane at 1.30pm with the Mills Village Shield the spoils this time for the winners.

Thanks go to Amanda Jarrold for the superb tea and to match sponsors Coast and Country Cottages.