Asked to bat first, the home side made a measured start against some accurate bowling from Daniel Shearn and Stuart Green, with a steady 36 added for the first wicket between Paul Peterson (23) and Jon Tickner (20). The latter eventually fell to Shearn in the fifteenth over, before Peterson added another 40 runs with the hard-hitting Harry Eccott (70), whose innings would be the mainstay of the hosts’ total. He helped take the score from 36 to 147 in just fifteen overs with an array of fours and sixes until picking out Mark Robinson on the straight boundary.

The visitors kept chipping away at the wickets and Stoke were 162-5 with five overs to go and scoring slowly. Enter Graham Purnell who, along with Sam Hunter, gave the score a final boost to pass the 200 mark, with 43 coming from the last thirty balls, despite Methodists’ skipper Alex Nash’s (4-51) best efforts.

After tea, the Methodists’ innings followed a similar pattern, with all but two batsmen failing to capitalize on promising starts.

Jennifer Rivers (1-13) began very tidily with the ball, giving way to Eccott (2-24) and George Malin (2-40) who continued to claim wickets at regular intervals.

Nash again featured heavily with a shot-filled 81 but the rest of the batting rather fell away, and by the time last batter Darcey Green came out to join the experienced David Baker, the visitors’ score had slumped to 122-9.

Showing how it should have been done, Baker (45*), with gritty support from Green, unleashed a volley of boundaries to add an amazing 40 runs for the final wicket - claiming two further batting points - before Adrian Cooper (4-21) finally wrapped up victory for the home side.

Methodists’ next league game - Winford OC (Home), 21.5.22 Daniel Shearn