Final over thriller at Farnham!

Just a few short days after the season opener, the boys faced up to their first hard ball match against our friends and neighbours - and perhaps future rivals - Farnham Common.
James took the captaincy and continued BCCs impressive and statistically freakish run of lost tosses, with Farnham electing to bowl first.
James and Armaan got off to a really strong start - no lost wickets in a partnership of 17, showing some really nice strokes both sides of the wicket. Things then unfortunately went downhill from there... Some really accurate bowling and some over-exuberant shots lead to the loss of 7 wickets over the next 8 overs, leaving the score at the second sanitising break a meagre 210. Thankfully, Albert "The Wall" Partridge steadied the ship with a positive-scoring partnership with Connor, giving Curran and Ben the chance to push the score to something defendable. Some manic running and some fine shots from both lads got the final score up to 234.
An incredible effort in the field was required to even keep BCC within touching distance, and despite some really fantastic early bowling from James, Albert, Zac and Curran, the Farnham Common score was gradually inching up towards the victory total. Most impressive was the good length that was being bowled, which prevented the opposition batsman playing their favoured cross-batted scoring shots. Spencer rolled around a lot, stopping many byes being conceded, and Connor kept up his level of concentration, stopping several potential boundaries at midwicket. This kind of excellent application in the field would have a huge impact on the final result...
Lewis then put in a great spell, conceding no runs off the bat, and Armaan re-arranged the stumps of the no.5 to stop Farnham pulling away further.
Down to the last 4 overs, and Farnham were already 10 ahead; meaning BCC simply had to take wickets, with every saved run counting.
Up stepped Ben, on debut for BCC, and collected his first scalp with his very first ball. Even more remarkably, he then repeated the feat with his next ball, leaving scores level and him on a hat-trick! The next ball was chipped up in the air by the Farnham batter, and for a moment it looked like this debut would become the stuff of legend, only for the ball to drop agonisingly short of the fielder. Nevertheless, Ben had clawed the game back from the brink. Could the others follow it up?
Connor coped well with the pressure, bowling splendidly and only conceding 4 extras. 2 overs left, 5 behind…
Another amazing over from Ben – a maiden – to set up a final over from Gordon… 1 wicket required to tie, 2 to win…
Under huge pressure, but backed by vociferous support from the field, and with just 3 balls left – Gordon nipped one back in to clean up the wicket! Scores were now level, with only 2 balls left of the game. The tension was unbearable!
Next ball… slightly short of a length… completely bamboozled the batsman and just clipped the top of leg to send the BCC boys into ecstasy!
Gordon wrapped up his double wicket maiden to seal the game in a truly amazing finish; a win that the bowling performance deserved. What a display of playing under pressure from everyone!
Man of the Match: Ben Hodges – for a debut to be proud of, with a bowling spell that totally turned the game on its head.