Ed Oakley returned remarkable figures of 8-22 for Horspath 2nd in the Cherwell League's Pullinger Cup T20 Final - but incredibly still ended up on the losing side as Didcot triumphed by 11 runs at Banbury.
Brought into the attack with Didcot 95-1 off 13 overs after choosing to bat in the decider of the competition for Tier 1-3 sides, the 44-year-old seamer produced a sensational four-over spell.
He opened his amazing account with his fifth delivery when Marselle Cronje (38) skied a catch to Sam Leslie at mid-wicket to end a second-wicket partnership of 93 with skipper Sam Hepke.
Oakley then struck twice with consecutive deliveries in his next over as Hepke, who hit a fine 60 off 41 balls with six fours and a six, presented a catch to Ehsan Hussain at point, before Tristan Ashwin was bowled.
The Horspath bowler was on a roll and he claimed two more victims in his third over with Connor Morrison stumped off a legside wide by Tejas Anand and Will Huish caught at deep cover by captain Ryan Hicks to complete a five-wicket haul.
But Oakley wasn't finished there as he topped off his dream spell with three wickets in the last over to restrict Didcot to 136-9, trapping Sachin Dahiya lbw for 18, before having Baljit Singh Dhaliwal stumped and Matthew Ford bowled off successive deliveries.
It was an astonishing spell of bowling and unsurprisingly earned him the man of the match trophy awarded by competition organiser Barrie Pudwell.
Putting his staggering effort into context, the best figures in an international T20 match are 7-8 by Malaysia's Syazrul Idrus against China in Kuala Lumpur on July 26, 2023, while the leading return in a county match is Colin Ackermann's 7-18 for Leicestershire against Warwickshire at Grace Road on August 7, 2019.
It's not the first time Oakley has achieved a huge haul, having returned career-best figures of 9-39 for Oxford & Bletchingdon Nondescripts in 2009.
However, his heroics weren't enough to bring victory to Horspath, whose 1st XI had defeated Didcot in last year's final.
Slipping to 15-2 after five overs, the holders plunged deeper into the mire at 25-4 with Rodaine Osbourne (2-35) in the wickets and were still well behind the run rate at 66-6.
Dan Todd and Joval Calix, though, produced a spirited seventh-wicket stand of 56.
And when Todd hit 18 off the penultimate over, bringing up his half-century in the process it meant Horspath needed 15 off the last over to pull of an unlikely win.
It wasn't to be though as Tristan Ashwin took wickets in two balls, including Calix for a breezy 25, to leave Horspath short on 125-8.
Todd was undefeated with a valiant 55 from 37 balls, hitting five fours, while Ashwin took 3-12 from his four overs.
In the semi-finals earlier in the day, Horspath coasted to an eight-wicket win over Sandford St Martin, who were bowled out for 89 after being put in to bat.
Josh Cummings (3-11), Hicks (3-16) and Calix (2-16) led the way for Horspath as Krishnan Patel (25) top-scored.
Hussain (30) set Horspath on the way to 93-2, before Dan Corner (21no) and Rayaan Dogar (16no) completed the job with 5.5 overs to spare.
Didcot, meanwhile, beat Banbury 2nd by 33 runs. Posting 175-4, they then bowled the hosts out for 142.