Swardeston suffered national heartbreak on Sunday when they slid to a narrow defeat in the quarter-finals of the Royal London Club Championship.
Mark Thomas’ side gave an excellent account of themselves with both bat and ball at Blackheath on the outskirts of London, only to lose an entertaining game of cricket by just 10 runs.
Having won the toss and decided to bowl the visitors did a good job to restrict their opponents to 230-9 from their 45 overs.
Michael Thornley and Dipaytan Paul both scored half centuries for the home side, while Matthew Taylor was the most successful bowler, taking 3-35 from his nine overs.
Tom Oxley backed him up with 2-42, while Richard Sims and Mark Thomas weighed in with a wicket apiece.
An asking rate of just over five an over certainly wasn’t beyond Swardeston and Peter Lambert and Jordan Taylor got their effort off to a pleasing start with a first-wicket stand of 55.
The openers went for 38 and 23 respectively and the visitors then slipped to 100-5, with Stephen Gray and Lewis Denmark going cheaply and Sims making just 22.
Their target looked a tall order at that stage but then a sixth-wicket stand of 98 between Jeremy Elliott (51) and Matthew Taylor (56) gave them renewed hope of making the semi-finals.
Until the pair went in quick succession Swardeston, with wickets in hand, appeared slight favourites despite a tough run rate.
But the challenge was too great for the tail, with Blackheath finally wrapping up a hard-fought win off the first ball of the final over when young Tom Oxley was bowled by Warren Lee.
