THE High Wycombe players involved last Saturday will wonder exactly how they did what they did for the rest of their cricketing lives.

Captain Matthew Eyles has described it as his most extraordinary experience on a cricket field ever, while ace spinner Chris Sketchley admits the situation was so hopeless he was playing for losing bonus points.

But somehow, Wycombe turned it round to record a victory over Banbury that will take some beating.

Defending 275, they knew they had their work cut out but it seemed desperate as Banbury recovered from the loss of two early wickets to get within 24 runs of victory with five wickets still in hand.

Wycombe finally made a breakthrough, and then another, but Banbury regrouped to push their score to within one run of Wycombe’s score with three wickets still in hand.

A bye, a wide, and flukey inside edge to the boundary...anything would have been good enough to beat Wycombe.

Eyles said: “At five down I didn’t think we had a chance.

But then Sohail [Hussain] made the breakthrough and then spinners [Sketchley and Luke Beaven] came on.

“They’re hard to score against so when we got Banbury six and seven down I definitely thought we were in it.

“It was a good batting track and they had overs in hand, but they kept playing attacking shots.

“It was inexperience. Their younger players in the middle order were playing well but they kept attacking when they didn’t have to, so I always felt we could take wickets.”

But even he couldn’t have foreseen the clatter of wickets that fell with Banbury just one shot away from the win.

He said: “In that situation, the rule book goes out of the window. You’re playing on instinct.

“They were two big hits away with three wickets left, but I always thought we had a chance if we could keep applying pressure and at one stage we had four or five men around the bat plus the slips.”

And it worked. Sketchley removed number eight and captain Ian Hawtin with the score on 273, he struck again moments later and then, amidst incredible scenes, Beaven finished the match when James Megson was caught coming down the wicket.

Eyles said: “As we were walking off we were thinking, ‘has that really happened?’. It was the same for the Banbury players.

“It was the most extraordinary game of cricket I’ve ever played in. It wasn’t good for heart.

“I knew we were 50 runs light – 300 is a bit of a benchmark for us batting first at Wycombe – but that meant they felt they were in the game and it probably played into our hands a little bit.

“A few weeks ago we probably got too many runs against Henley.

“But it wasn’t the ideal strategy against top of the league this early in the season.

“It worked out though, and that’s the sign of a good team. We’re definitely not firing on all cyclinders and a few players could do with finding some form, but we’re still winning games.”

Saturday’s remarkable result took Wycombe above Banbury to the top of the table with a six-point cushion.

Tomorrow they go to Harpenden, who are second.

For full tables and fixtures, go to www.hcpcl.com