The Surrey Brown Caps moved a step closer to securing a semi-final place in the Friends Provident Trophy by beating the Glamorgan Dragons by three wickets with two overs to spare at a cold and windswept, yet undeniably picturesque, Cresselly Cricket Club ground in Pembrokeshire.

After winning the toss, Mark Butcher put the home side into bat and they had reached 2-0 from the first ten balls of the contest when a prolonged shower cut two hours from the playing time, much to the disappointment of a good-sized crowd. With this interruption having reduced the match to a 39-overs-per-side affair, Surrey immediately put the Dragons on the back foot as Matt Nicholson and an inspired Mohammad Akram made early inroads into a fragile batting line-up. From the depths of 35-3 in the ninth over, Jimmy Maher led a recovery of sorts, though neither he nor his partners were really able to cut loose against some consistently testing bowling and tight fielding. The left-handed Australian gradually began to up the tempo after completing a workmanlike fifty from seventy balls, but it was only after he was defeated by an excellent slower ball from Rikki Clarke with his score on seventy-six that Glamorgan’s ninth-wicket pair of Mark Wallace and Dean Cosker managed to provide sufficient acceleration to take their team’s score beyond 200. During an unbroken partnership of 42 from 32 balls, Wallace (26 not out from 18 balls) spanked Clarke for consecutive straight sixes to give the hosts a chance of recording their first victory of the season in the 50-overs-a-side competition.

Those hopes were quickly dented, though, when Damien Wright limped off injured after delivering just four balls of the first over, and James Benning, leading Surrey’s pursuit of a Duckworth-Lewis adjusted target of 205, tore into Alex Wharf to propel his side to 40-1 after just five overs. The Dragons were soon back in the hunt, however, when Mark Ramprakash recorded a rare failure, providing Wharf with a straightforward return catch, and Benning (38 from 24 balls) cut Huw Waters to Cosker at backward point with the score on 62. Surrey badly needed a stabilising stand at this stage and it was the experienced pairing of Mark Butcher and Jonathan Batty who provided it. Although both men were fully tested by the excellent Cosker, who had dropped Butcher on nought and seen the same batsman survive a stumping chance off him on sixteen, the fourth-wicket pair compiled the only half-century partnership of the match to put the visitors on course for victory. With eighty-one runs having been added from eighteen overs, the deserving Cosker eventually made the breakthrough when Batty (33) missed a reverse sweep and was bowled, though this didn’t seem to matter too much as Clarke and Butcher soon blasted 19 runs from an over from the medium-paced Ben Wright. Surrey now looked set to complete a comfortable triumph as just twenty-seven runs were needed from seven overs, but they suffered a late attack of nerves as Clarke miscued the off-spin of O’Shea to cover and Newman and Schofield fell in the space of five balls to the returning Wharf (4-45). Fortunately for the Brown Caps, their captain kept a calm head and ushered his team to victory with the fourth six of his excellent 99-ball innings, driving Waters over long off to put Surrey on top of the Southern Conference with three matches left to play.

Many thanks are due to Cresselly C.C. for making everyone from Surrey C.C.C. very welcome and for all the hard work they put in to stage an excellent match at their lovely ground.

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