AN ALERT piece of fielding off the last ball of the match saw Farncombe claim a deserved victory to keep themselves in the promotion hunt, and at the same time dent Stoke's own ambitions of playing Division Four cricket in 2011.

There are still seven games to play but in reality all seven must now be won to acquire the required points total.

Stoke skipper Siddhartha Lahiri won the toss and chose to give his bowlers first use of a green top that played, in retrospect, better than it looked.

Toby Tarrant struck in the first over when Appleton edged the first ball he faced to Will Gudgeon at slip. Initially Tarrant and Tim Handel bowled well in tandem in the opening exchanges that saw the other opener Jaggard and number three Barnes each benefit from a dropped chance to bring up the hundred.

Barnes hit 75 of them before mis-pulling to Gudgeon at mid-wicket to give Jake Lavender a confidence-boosting wicket.

After a scratchy start Jaggard started to move the field, and keeper-batsman Cruz helped him add another 40 runs before the latter edged Ian Hopton to Hiken Shah at slip.

With the total on 171 Hopton forced a rash shot from Jaggard, who made 48, and Josh Howe made good ground at mid-off to take a good catch; but that would be his only other wicket of the afternoon as Kamoto and Baker milked all the spinners deployed by Lahiri for a fifth wicket partnership of 77.

With the scoreboard ticking over and both players moving into the 40s, Lahiri switched back to seam.

Baker hit 46, Greaves went for a third ball duck, Ekins departed for the addition of just a single, then Kamoto was castled one short of what would have been a splendid half-century.

The reintroduction of seam dried up the boundaries, and as 248-4 was soon 260-8, Luke Edwards and home skipper Dray were left to push singles to move the total to a challenging 289-8.

Tarrant registered his first five wicket haul for the first XI, returning figures of 5-82. Hopton took 2-71, but overall the bowling and fielding performances failed to inspire each other and Stoke were left facing a record run chase to secure the much needed win.

After their opening stand of 159 against the same opposition earlier in the season, Shah and Lahiri were after another good start, but both were back in the pavilion with just 11 on the board.

Shah pulled a short delivery on to his stumps and Lahiri was easily run out - off a no ball.

Handel and Jack Raimondo steadied the ship, and having fought hard to get in on a pitch that was starting to offer more for the bowlers, they were rewarded for their patience as the change bowlers failed to follow up the good start by the openers, notably Luke Edwards.

In his most fluent innings of the season, Raimondo beat his partner to 50 and went on to hit a Surrey Championship best 66 as the pair added 117 for the third wicket at the required rate.

Raimondo was unlucky to be bowled when a ball from Luke Edwards trickled on to leg stump off a combination of bat and clothing.

Gudgeon hit two straight fours to keep the run chase going, Handel brought up his 50 and the game was in the balance at 146-3 before Gudgeon (13) fell to a leg-side stumping.

The promoted Hopton was bowled through the gate by Kamoto, then Will Patrick was lost to the second run out of the innings despite the throw initially going to the wrong end.

Still going for the win Handel became more expansive and inventive. Trying to farm the strike, he peppered the short boundary and with Josh Howe offering good support at the other end the 200 was passed.

The asking rate was pushing nine but Handel's presence at the crease was still a major concern for the hosts, but things changed when his assault ended on 95 when he became Kamoto's second victim.

Howe fell to the same bowler leaving the tail to bat out the last six overs for the draw.

Lavender and Tarrant negotiated most of them before the latter edged Luke Edwards (4-67) to slip, but despite a lot of fielders for company, it appeared the draw was secured when the last ball was blocked to the fielder, who then proceeded to throw the stumps down as the unfortunate Lavender started to walk towards the pavilion thinking time had been called.

In reality there was no real difference between a loss and a draw for Stoke.