Seventh heaven for Chapman and Dons

The Dons were on the road again, travelling far and wide, many not to the intended destination on time but plenty of sights to behold on the way.

After a slight delayed start, Sparsholt won the toss and fancied a bat on what looked like a nice deck.

Captain Dan Hewitt opened the bowling from the pavilion end and Will Mann from the other.

A tough start for the Dons as the host batsman looked to be getting in the groove and playing some nice shots, mixed with a few suspect ones.

At last a breakthrough from the skipper, though, as he trapped one of the openers leg before wicket. Mann then followed suit with a nut to dismiss the number three batter that cut in and hit the top of off stump.

The Dons were starting to roll and a bowling change by the skipper led to the newly-crowned king of the swing Chapman come on from the pavilion end.

No-one could have foreseen the torment about to be unleashed, though.

The ball moved from the start of his spell and Chapman opened up with a double-wicket maiden.

Another change from the other end saw Mann replaced by Atkinson, keen to get in on the action.

He duly picked up a wicket with a snick behind to Nick Scutt before the Chapman show got into full swing.

Ball after ball caused the Sparsholt batsmen trouble, wickets tumbling like a Jenga tower. Nick Scutt took another two catches with the gloves - totalling three for the day, a sterling job.

Chapman eventually ran out of batsman to send back and finished with figures of seven wickets for four runs in 5.3 overs. Now 11 for seven in the competition.

With the tea ladies caught off guard, the two teams agreed on a quick turnaround and both sides returned to the arena to do battle.

Requiring 60 for victory looked a simple task for the Dons.

But they soon found themselves in trouble at 20 for five as Joe Collings-Wells, Mark Le-Clercq, James Scutt, Nick Scutt and James Atkinson all fell cheaply.

The pressure was growing in the small run-chase and up stepped Paul Vickers (nine not out) and skipper Hewitt (20 not out) to steer the Dons clear of the iceberg and home with cool heads.

Game over by 4pm, the Dons had tea and reflected on a crazy game of cricket.