Steep 1st XI v Overton

Steep recorded a tenth win of the season with an emphatic 8 victory over mid table Overton and strengthened their hold on third place in the process. Although it has been the batsmen that have been showing the way this season, this was the turn of the Steep unit to claim the plaudits as they blew away a full strength Overton line up.

Steep travelled to a damp but playable Overton and were rewarded when Skipper John Smith won the toss and elected to bowl first on a wicket that promised rewards for accurate bowling.

Young starlet Jack Campbell opened up with George Perry and the two of them found their line straight away, removing both openers for ducks. Bown and Glass fought valiantly against a testing salvo from Campbell only for Perry to benefit by picking them both up in quick succession.

With Campbell’s allotted spell of 6 overs complete, the bought himself on and continued the probing attack picking up a wicket with his first ball, well caught by Dale Collins behind the wicket. Overton’s position at 37 for 4 was not one they were ever going to recover from with Perry and Smith picking up every over aided by some smart catches from Rich Atkins, Chris Adams and Campbell. The game had only seen 20 overs but the innings was closed with the score on 64, but not before Perry could collect his second match winning 5 wicket haul of the season. Smith collected 4 from his 4 overs whilst Campbell’s single wicket did not indicate how well he had in fact performed.

Steep have struggled in the past chasing low totals and they did not do themselves any favours when Collins was caught for a duck off the third ball of the innings. Any initial panics were soon passed as machine Dean Knight and Mr Reliable Sean Noble settled into the job in hand. Overton had little to offer in attacking options with such a small target to defend and despite mixing the attack up Knight and Noble took the score to 61 before Knight was caught going for a grandstand finish for a well made 33. Adams came in and showed how to do it with a towering straight 6 to conclude the game in the 17th over and ensure that the return to Harrow HQ was made with full points.

Next week Steep get a chance to test how far they have progressed as unbeaten champions elect Hobos visit Church Road. Although automatic promotion is not possible for this year, ending this unbeaten streak would be a fantastic achievement for this developing side.