“It was a warm and sunny day when a weakened Boxgrove travelled to play a Burpham team who were determined to exact revenge for their Downland Cup semi final defeat the previous month.

Batting first Burpham lost an early wicket when O’Connor took a sharp catch in the gully off of Paul Mant’s bowling (2 for 51) but that brought Gareth Challen to the wicket. It was then that the lack of depth in the Boxgrove bowling attack was exposed, especially on what is a small ground. When Challen was finally caught on the boundary by O’Connor he had scored 140 and Burpham were well on their way to amassing a huge total. None of the bowlers escaped punishment as Burpham ended on a mammoth 365-8 but Jake Bugden was the pick with an encouraging 2 for 42 off his 8 overs. Doug Wyers (2 for 54) and Guy Partridge (1 for 45) responded well to being asked by the skipper to do a job in what was a 40 over contest requiring 5 bowlers to each bowl a maximum of 8 overs whilst Will Banks had figures of 1 for 80 on debut.

In reply James Thorpe and Mark Holl started well in what was a testing opening against a new ball. A promising stand of 61 was however broken when Holl edged behind but then Thorpe and O’Connor took the game to Burpham. By the time O’Connor was out for 40 ending a stand of 91 Thorpe has already passed 1,000 runs for the season and was looking assured and was regularly finding the boundary. He duly recorded his fourth century of the season and his second of the weekend, an excellent achievement. Thorpe found useful support in an aggressive Will Banks (23) but then the skipper fell for 121. Jake Bugden and Paul Mant then played some entertaining short cameos but Boxgrove finished what was a brave innings on an honourable 245-7. Given that it was a 40 over contest this did however mean defeat for Boxgrove.”