The Badgers' winning streak finally ended, as the Thespians thundered their way to a well-earned victory in Barnes.
The Badgers won the toss and put their opponents in to bat on an unpredictable looking pitch. Mackrell and Morse took the new ball and kept the Thespians under some tight pressure in the opening overs with Morse picking up an early wicket to hand the advantage to the Badgers. The change bowlers managed to keep the run rate pressure on and with Barker sneaking another wicket the Thespians looked in trouble at the halfway stage with a meagre 60 runs on the board. However, the Thespian middle order went on the offensive, punishing any wayward deliveries. Ex-Badger Robertshaw, playing with his usual panache, led the attack to finish unbeaten on 91, and pushed his team to 222 from their 40 overs. The Badger bowling was impressive in places but a lack of consistent pressure had allowed their opponents to put on roughly 50 runs more than they had expected to be chasing at the drinks interval.
After an excellent tea openers Jinks and Marchant made their way out to the crease to begin the reply. However, Jinks's luckless run continued as he fell in the first over, and was followed by Marchant a mere three overs later, Shone was looking in good touch before he too fell to an excellent delivery from the Thespian captain Heanley. A decent partnership between Warman and Lee gave the visitors a chance to rebuild, however, once Lee fell in the 19th over the Thespians kept taking wickets at regular intervals, and even a swashbuckling knock from Mackrell, couldn't save them as the required run rate continued to climb and the wickets continued to fall to leave the Badgers all out for 166.