A superb performance from their men’s A team just failed to bring Oxfordshire an unlikely victory in their Rileys Inter-Counties Championship Premier Division match against Essex at Cowley.

The visitors ended up winning 19-17, but only after being given a big fright.

Trailing 15-9 going into the final series of matches, Oxon men’s A needed a miraculous ten wins out of 12 to keep up their winning run.

For a long time they looked achieving the ‘impossible’.

Stuart Dutton and Kevin Lowe took the first two games.

Joe Palmer lost the next before Ade Larner, Nick Cobb, Dennis Smith and man-of-the-match Jon Jukes put four more points on the board.

After another loss, Oxon Pete Hall and Preben Krabben both won to level it 17-17, and a victory looked on the cards.

But Essex took the last two legs to complete the 19-17 success and end Oxon’s unbeaten record.

However, by winning their clash 8-4, the home county’s men’s A team stay joint top of their table. The damage had been done earlier with Oxon’s other teams all suffering narrow defeats.

The ladies B started well with wins from Nicola Curzon and Babs Manning, but lost the next four.

The men’s B also began strongly with Lee Russell and Eamon Lilly winning the first two games, but they still lost 7-5, despite further successes from Mark Leather Ian Moss and Kevin Wilkins.

In the ladies A contest Essex prevailed 4-2, Oxon’s wins coming from Deta Hedman and Linda Jones.