SO far this season I have seen four excellent cricket matches that ended as draws, writes Peter Stafford. But this, most emphatically, was not one of them!

It was a game which underlined the huge difference between the top and the bottom of the Fort James Bolton League, a game in which Kearsley played most of the cricket that was worth watching, and a game in which their opponents, seemingly void of any sort of ambition, simply threw the towel in at the tea-interval.

On winning the toss Eagley put the visitors in to bat and Jason Swift and John Ratledge moved comfortably along during an opening stand of 40 which allowed the admirable Australian to reach his thousand runs for the season.

Then Ratledge nicked White to the keeper, and two runs later Tom Whittle played a shot that even brought a disapproving comment from his dad, hitting all round a straight delivery from the Eagley pro.

The 50 came up after 16 overs, but somewhere around this time Swift, who should have been looking for 80pc of the strike, was restricted to 19 balls during the course of 13 overs.

A double bowling change saw White and Wilson relieved by Seddon and Foster, and when the left-armer won his particular duel with Swift, yorking him for 46 with the total on 92, a change came over the game which must have caused Brent Richards to breathe a little easier in view of his decision on winning the toss.

Five wickets went down for just 33 runs, and at 124 for 7, Kearsley, if not exactly staring down both barrels, must have been squirming uneasily in their seats! While Seddon, turning his off-spinners appreciably, and Foster had put the brakes on to a certain extent, it has to be said that five of the visiting batsmen had contributed significantly to their various downfalls.

Skipper Simon Thomson had played sensibly through all the disasters at the other end, and now, in Mel Whittle, he had found the right partner. Together they began to bat their side out of trouble, and at 148 Thomson moved to a fine, chanceless half-century when he deposited a rare Seddon full-toss on to the football field.

As the innings drew towards a close the pair accelerated. and while Whittle should have been run-out by a mile going for three in the penultimate over, Foster's last couple of overs were so costly as to beg the question of why at least one of the openers, if not both, had not been brought back.

Thomson finished on 77, and the total on 190 for 7. It wasn't that Eagley had let things slip, just that Kearsley's last pair of batsmen had shown far more common-sense in their application than had some of their predecessors.

The home side got away to the worst possible start when Akber sent back Franklyn with only two on the board and from that point the scoring-rate went into serious decline, as 11 for 1 in the first 11 overs became 26 runs in the first hour. Brad White's innings was, quite frankly, a bore.

When he finally departed, superbly caught at slip by Swift off Akber for 33, he had occupied the crease for 35 overs. His technique in defence on a wicket which occasionally produced a ball that lifted disconcertingly was fairly faultless, and every now and then he allowed himself the luxury of an attacking shot, as if to prove a point to us and to himself.

But long before his innings came to an end, the possibility of an Eagley challenge had become a non-starter, and both his team-mates and the side's supporters have the right to expect more than that from a first-class professional batsman.

Tim Rees, fresh from his experiences with England's Under-15 side, played some pleasing shots, and it was during his short stand with Chris Lord that the run-rate reached the dizzy heights of 2-per-over for the first time -- 78 from 39 overs! In the 43rd over we had what was, in the context of the innings, a major flurry of excitement, when the ball struck a grounded helmet, and the resultant five runs took the total past the 100 mark.

As the game drifted aimlessly to a close, Jason Swift provided something of a diversion by becoming only the fourth bowler I've ever seen operating while wearing a cap, the others being Sonny Ramadhin, Boycott, and Kevin Kirkpatrick.

Nevertheless it was Swifty who earned his side a further bowling point at 113 with another brilliant catch, this time off his own bowling, to got rid of the top-scoring Rees for 37. Without any addition the Australian took the sixth and final wicket when he persuaded his pal, Tim Wallwork, to hole out to Mel Whittle at deep mid-wicket, a dismissal that would almost certainly have justified an airing or two in the bar after the game!

At 113 for 6, Kearsley needed a 'Caddick over' from someone, but Akber, had clearly become incapacitated with what appeared to be a pulled muscle. It wasn't forthcoming from anyone else, and so, with Eagley not appearing particularly interested in a batting point that they clearly didn't deserve anyway, the game ground to a halt and, thankfully we could all go home.

It really was that bad, and, yes, teams who put sides in to bat do have a moral obligation to go for the win at some stage of their innings. I've always been implacably opposed to the 'most runs wins' rules system believing as I do that there can be merit in a draw, but every now and then a second-half batting display like this comes along, and makes me wonder if I'm right!