Having not won a game throughout July, Grace's wanted to get back into winning ways, so on a sunny but breezy afternoon, Shofiq won the toss and elected to field. Bielby was kindly playing for the opposition as they were short.
These games against Octopus, as with Ploughmans, are becoming legendary and we thought one player would stand in our way - Mr Rocky, known as Bisht. He scored a hundred against us last year and had been in great form this year. Unfortunately today, he was out first ball, Howden taking the edge and caught in the slips, so unlike last year (which we will never forget), their umpire stuck his finger up and off Rocky walked. Remarkably this year, another player stood up for Octopus, a chap called Cowling, who walloped 76 runs with great authority whilst Bielby scored 37 not out for the opposition. 208 was going to be a stiff target, Shofiq had brought back Howden to take a further 2 wickets, and Page was given an opportunity to have a bowl to wrap up the innings after 34 overs.
An early tea and then Page and Camberwell opened the batting but soon got into trouble. Camberwell fell to Bielby trying to smack him out of the ground, whilst Page was bowled for 12 and missed out for a change. Thankfully Rishafi and Shofiq (84 and 43) were in pretty impressive form and brought Grace's to the brink of victory, only to have a full batting collapse once they were out. Fortunately, Newton-Sawyerr had the skill and determination to bring Grace's to within the final few runs, to allow Fawaz and Howden to win the game with one wicket to spare.