IT SHOULD have been the game that had everything. The two top sides in a head-of-table showdown -- a dozen of the League's star players on display -- even a Granada TV camera to record one aspect of it for posterity!

And yet when the end came with just eight balls of the hundred overs unbowled, the difference between the two sides was as wide as the ocean.

After Kearsley had feasted themselves during the afternoon, Egerton were left fighting for the scraps which, in truth, they didn't deserve.

The first piece of drama came when Egerton, on winning the toss, put Kearsley in to bat. Surely in a game that was absolutely vital to Egerton it would have made more sense, given a decent looking wicket and a reasonable weather-forecast, to bat first, to try and get the kind of substantial total on the board which would have put the leaders under some real pressure.

In fairness to the Egerton skipper, though, his side made a good start.

After six overs had been bowled, Kearsley were 16 for two, and with the hugely talented Swift back in the pavilion, the visitors were on top for the first and last time in the match.

Simon Thomson and Tom Whittle applied themselves well, however.

They got the basics right, defending carefully but not allowing the half-volleys to go unpunished, and when Whittle was bowled by Barry, attempting to work the ball through mid-wicket, the pair had added 65 and built a springboard for the remainder of the innings.

At 81 for three, Thomson was joined by Darron Foy, and if the previous partnership had put Kearsley out of harm's way, now began the one which ultimately was to realise 105 runs and win the match.

With Thomson sitting tight and giving his ebullient partner his head, the game started to slip away from Egerton.

Foy's unbeaten 66 contained 10 fours, most of them hit cleanly through the leg-side, and while his final all-round figures were of man-of-the-match proportions, Kearsley were equally indebted to their captain.

In all, Thomson's 46 runs were spread over 122 balls and came out of 177 runs scored while he was at the wicket.

He enjoyed two moments of fortune, when he was dropped at slip and when he survived a massive appeal for a catch at the wicket, but in the end his was a match-winning effort and included a superbly-struck off-drive, that would have qualified for any champagne moment.

Fazal Akber arrived just in time to hit 16 from the last four balls of the innings, and to make a bit of a mess of McGarrell's otherwise economical analysis.

Egerton, in pursuit of 203 runs to win the game, made the worst possible start when the out of form Nigel Partington was caught at the wicket by his namesake, but Tim Barry and Johnny Mills settled in and added 32, by which time they had seen off the initial threat posed by Kearsley's professional.

He was replaced by Foy and almost immediately Barry, as if to celebrate the fact of having survived Akber the bowler, played the loosest of shots to be caught at mid-off by Akber the fielder!

Six runs later Mills was bowled by Mel Whittle, and Foy took his second wicket when he trapped Sawers lbw.

This brought together McGarrell and Clegg, and with the West Indian at his fluent best, the total was pushed up into the mid-70s.

But three more wickets fell for only two runs. First Clegg, hitting across the line, was bowled by Foy, and then the Hornby family's weekend was totally ruined by two raised fingers, one at either end!

Now it was McGarrell against the world, Akber returned at 91 for 7, and the crucial moment came in the 45th over, when a particularly quick delivery from the Pakistani got through to rearrange McGarrell's stumps.

Price went fairly quickly, and with eight balls remaining Akber completed the job that test fast bowlers are meant to do in League cricket, wrapping up the tail by having Sharples caught by Tom Whittle to bring his fighting little innings to an end.

Foy's four for 31 were the best figures, Akber took four for 40, and if it wasn't Mel's day for getting amongst the wickets, his final figures of 24-12-34-2 still made outstandingly miserly reading.

On the day, Kearsley certainly had the look of a championship side, but they know only too well that the job is still only half done.

Egerton, on the other hand, won't need me to remind them that last season it was their poor July form that blew away any title chances they may have had.

This year, after four consecutive wins in June, they have yet to find success in July.

The name of the seventh month of the year is rapidly becoming a dirty word at Longworth Road!