Blackheath lost a closely fought encounter with Stoke D'Abernon on Sunday to leave them a tough battle to gain the elusive top spot in the league with only two games left.

Losing the toss on a sunny afternoon was an early setback, but Sarah "Biggie" Williams gave us the best possible start to the ame by clean bowling Lucy Binns with the very first ball and following it up with another wicket at the end of the over. Stoke were 2/2 and Blackheath jubilant. However this brought the talented Natalie Sciver to the crease and she and Shannen Miah regrouped and began to build a third-wicket partnership. By the first drinks break at 15 overs, the runs had really started to flow with Stoke 73/2 and back on top. Skipper Abi Carter gave the Blackheath team a pep talk and a few overs of tighter fielding and beautiful bowling from Greer Hill and Carter herself followed the break, with Hill finally making the breakthrough to remove Sciver on 45. A bottom edge onto the stumps it may have been, but it was the result of some old-fashioned pressure and was very well deserved. Stoke captain Amy Page joined Miah at the crease and had been around five overs before she lofted a drive over bowler Atkins's head. Safe, we all thought, but Carter covered a lot of ground running around from deep mid off and plucked the ball out of the air for a superb catch. Now Stoke were 103/4 off 24 and Blackheath back in the game.

The key wicket of Miah followed, caught by Biggie off a slower ball from Laura Daniels, followed by a run out off a smart piece of work from Carter and hopes were high that we could wrap up the innings before the 40 overs were out. However the Stoke tail wagged with crucial runs put on in the closing overs by Bella Hardy and Jenny Nunn. The innings closed on 171/8 and it was anyone's game. Stoke had batted well and built some excellent partnerships, but Blackheath's bowling and fielding had been impressive on a good track and fast outfield.

The Blackheath innings got off to its usual flying start, with Atkins and Williams wasting no time in pursuit of 172 to win. 61 were on the board after the first 10 overs, with four bowlers already used by the desperate Stoke captain. The partnership was broken in the 17th over with the score on 93 when Williams was adjudged lbw for 46, and Atkins followed shortly afterwards for 31. Greer Hill made a calm start to her innings, picking up ones and twos in the gaps, but she lost partners Carter and Daniels in quick succession to leave Blackheath suddenly wobbling on 125/4. The run rate required was still only 4 an over, but on a day when we were missing two frontline batsmen, nerves began to set in. Hill holed out at long off for 23 off spinner Bella Hardy (it's never got when as a non-striker you hear your partner shout "oh cr*p!" before calling you through for a single) and Bec Carlton lost her off stump to her first delivery, leaving Sarah "Gib" Berman and Claire Livesey at the crease with 35 to win off 7 overs. Livesey slapped Hardy for four through mid-wicket before the combination of Stoke's excellent fielding, tight bowling and the inevitable pursuit of quick singles led to Livesey and then Berman being run out with the target still 23 runs away and 8 wickets now gone. At this point the game was up, and Caroline Carson, Bec Watling and Flora Junghan (making her Blackheath debut) were left to block out the last couple of overs to secure the batting point for reaching 150 and deny Stoke a final bowling point.

It was a frustrating way to end a game and an innings that promised so much, and it felt like the game that got away, but we were beaten by a side with just a touch more strength in depth that we had on the day. Despite an excellent performance with the ball and in the field, only our top three made double figures with the bat, which just wasn't enough to win the game. Blackheath remain second in the league behind St Lawrence and Highland Court, whom they must beat in the final game of the season (25 July) to have a chance of finishing top and gaining automatic promotion to Division Two.