This week’s fixture for Emmbrook saw them making the short trip to Reading in search of 11 points which, after last week’s victory over second-placed Penn & Tylers Green would see them lift the Championship title
Emmbrook’s lineup had four changes from the previous week, with Opener Matt Loxton, middle batsman Sean Woodward and Andy Lazenbury and bowler Charlie Sawyer being replaced by Alex Cobb, James Gibbs, Jamie Goodwin and the return of all-rounder Jamie Middleton to the team.
West Reading won the toss and elected to bat first on a dust bowl of a wicket.
Tom Stevenson drew first blood, with help from a smart catch from Alex Cobb to take the first wicket with the score on just 7 in the third over.
Emmbrook were now made to sweat in the afternoon sun for the next 22 overs, as the West Reading batsman put on 68 runs for the second wicket when another well-held catch by Tom Davis off-spinner Andy Robertson saw the score at 75-2.
Two more wickets quickly fell, with both Robertson and Jamie Middleton hitting the stumps, and with part-time bowler Tom Davis picking up a wicket had on Reading on 122-5.
With Emmbrook a little light on bowlers, skipper Jack Narraway now turned to opener Ollie Williams to bowl, and within 36 balls, Williams had the amazing figures of 5-24 to bowl out West Reading for 152.
Davis and Williams now opened the batting for Emmbrook, and with the West Reading bowlers seemingly taking forever to bowl their overs, the score crawled to 16 off 6 overs, before a mix-up saw Tom Davis being run out for seven.
Two balls later, Williams was out for 5,16-2. There now followed a procession of Emmbrook batsman coming in and quickly departing, Alex Cobb (1), Jack Narraway (8) , Tom Stevenson (0) and last week’s batting hero Jake David (13) all gone and the score on 65-6 , with only Jamie Middleton holding on at the other end.
Hard-hitting David Healey now walked to the wicket and with Middleton, added 74 runs in 9 overs, to move the score up to 139,before Middleton was bowled for 59 off 59 balls, hitting nine fours, and Emmbrook still needing 11 more runs for an extra batting point and 14 for the win.
With just the tail left ,it was left to Healey to try and get Emmbrook over the victory line, but first Robertson skyed a catch, and then Healey holding out for 43 off 30 balls , trying to finish the game with a six with the score on 147,it was down to the last two batsmen.
The end came four balls later with Jamie Goodwin chipping up a catch to mid-off,to give West Reading the win by 5 runs and leaving Emmbrook only taking 10 points from the game, agonizingly one point short of claiming the title.
Emmbrook now travels to Ley Hill to take the last point to win the Championship.