Arun got within touching distance of victory on Sunday, despite posting a disappointingly low total against hosts Salthill.

After spending much of Sunday lunchtime asking his family whether he should call heads or tails when all they wanted to talk about was the previous day’s exhilarating cup final, captain Laurie Mellor lost the toss and Arun were asked to bat.

Sam Mellor and Dave Stapley opened the innings, with the former being dismissed in the first over after a heavy outside edge to the wicket keeper.  Two more quick wickets followed and Arun found themselves 9 for 3 with Chris Staight and Laurie Mellor at the crease.

Their partnership put Arun back on track, with Chris hitting an excellent 30, and Laurie making an important contribution of 11, on a ground with extremely long grass making boundaries very difficult.

Some hard-hitting at the end of the Arun innings from Roland Swales (12) and Simon Fuller (10) were the other notable contributions to Arun’s finishing total of 79. Although a low total, it was competitive in conditions that hugely favoured the bowlers.

Salthill coasted through the start of their innings and were comfortably placed on 50/1 before Saqlain Philpott started weaving his magic from The “Big Fence In Front Of The Old People Playing Bowls” End.

After a quiet first few overs from the off spinner, in which the usually reliable Sam Mellor dropped a very easy catch despite having both hands out of his pockets, Philpott burst to life in the 5th over capturing his first wicket of the season.

With 2 wicket maidens in successive overs, Geoff finished with 4 wickets in all from 9 overs, achieved through a mixture of unerring accuracy and clever use of flight.

Roland’s cameo spell of 3 overs from the other end yielded 2 wickets, and before long Salthill found themselves perilously close to defeat, needing 2 runs to win but with just 2 wickets intact, and “nasty fasty” Martin Burchett - on his second spell - steaming in from The Trees And Clouds End.

Unfortunately for Arun, the Salthill no.9 produced a glorious on-drive to win the game for them and Wanderers left the field disappointed at losing a game that merely an hour earlier they thought was completely dead and buried.