With the home side unexpectedly a man short at the appointed hour, Reading kindly offered the services of eleven-year-old Will Baker - and Warborough had no hesitation in accepting.

Put into bat in cloudy conditions, Reading struggled initially against the new-ball as Matt Thompson and Daniel Leach made significant inroads with their lethal combination of respective out-swing and induckers. Ian Carpenter was the unfortunate recipient of the perfect delivery from Thompson, which moved away at the very last to defeat his text-book forward-defensive prod and knock out the off-stump.

The fall of the fourth wicket in the 15th over saw the Ul-Haq brothers (Zia and Waqar) join forces in a bid to arrest the decline. With the opening bowlers now rested, the brothers set about rescuing the situation by punishing anything loose and using their feet to work Freddie Iswariah's well-pitched leg-breaks through straight mid-wicket. The pair had added 56 for the fifth wicket in only eight overs when Waqar attempted one ambitious leg-side thump too many at the leg-spinner and was well caught by Sean Whitty running in from the deep mid-wicket boundary.

Zia - who had just acknowledged the applause for reaching his half-century - should have followed his brother back to the pavilion the very next delivery, as he danced down the pitch and failed to connect with a full-length leg-break wide of his off-stump - but the ball inexplicably evaded the wicketkeeper's gloves and instead ran away for three byes.

Zia continued in the same aggressive vein, and although he was not without blame for the run-out of his next partner (Tom Weeks - who was sent back after turning the ball square of the shortish mid-wicket fielder), he brought up his century in the 34th over without offering another chance. However, he had not added to this tally when he deflected another in-swinger from the returning Leach into his stumps.

It was now that skipper Jonnie Bradshaw elected to abandon his own experimental off-spin from the Rowse End and accede to young Baker's request for the chance to have a bowl. This decision reaped immediate dividend when Adam Seymour wandered beyond the confines of his popping crease and was duly stumped. Thereafter, John Nicholls afforded Baker much respect for the rest of the over. Baker was withdrawn from the attack with figures of 1-0-3-1 - sufficient for him to head the home side's 1st XI bowling averages for the season.

Leach duly picked up his fifth wicket he finally obeyed the basic principle of bowling full and straight at the tail; and with Thompson returning to pick up the final wicket, Reading were finally bowled out for 195.

With Reading having scored their runs at such a healthy lick, Warborough were left with in excess of two-and-a-half hours to chase down the target under what was now a cloudless sky.

Despite a number of vociferous shouts for leg-before wicket, Adrian Zagoritis and Sean Leach proceeded to see off the opening attack with few alarms. Waqar Ul-Haq's slow left-arm spin asked more posing questions, and brought about the eventual downfall of Zagoritis for a well-constructed 45.

Jonnie Bradshaw's attempt to flail John Baker through the leg-side only succeeded in providing the wicketkeeper with some simple catching practice, and the belated introduction of Zia Ul-Haq finally brought Leach's steady accumulation to a halt for a chanceless 59 - his third successive half-century over the course of a sparkling six-week period of sublime form.

Matt Thompson's innings had started watchfully, but now began to blossom against a wilting attack. He had taken Warborough to within 17 runs of victory (with six overs remaining) when he essayed an injudicious heave at the returning slow left-armer and was bowled for 36.

Sean Whitty allowed himself the luxury of a couple of sighters, before he precisely mirrored the mode of Thompson's dismissal. So it was left to the cool head of Daniel Leach to see Warborough home with 16 balls to spare, bringing down the curtain on another summer.