Newbury Weekly News

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Thursday, May 11, 2017
Email: Cricket
THATCHAMmade a disappointing
start to their Thames Valley League
Division Two B campaign when a
single run handed newly-promoted
Aldershot victory by the narrowest of
margins.
Hosts Aldershot struggled at first
against Thatcham’s opening attack as
Ryan Gilmour picked up the wicket of the
prolific Rory Collins for six streaky runs,
and with Josh O’Flynn also bowling well,
the visitors appeared to be taking control.
They kept the run rate in check as
spinners Chris Bird and Nick Bishop – in
as a late replacement for the injured John
Williams and making his first senior XV
appearance in six years - made life
difficult for the batsmen with Bird
conceding only 17 runs in his 10 overs as
Aldershot laboured to 100-3 in 30 overs.
The departure of opener Calum Grover
for a watchful 54 saw Duncan Anslow (25)
and skipper Amir Hameed (20) attempt to
up the tempo, and it was Thatcham who
began to toil as they struggled to control
the late burst of runs.
Occasional seamer Stephen
Bartholomew picked up 2-54, but with
Thatcham short of attacking options,
Aldershot worked their way to 210-9 after
50 overs, some 40 runs above what
Thatcham hoped would be the target.
O’Flynn claimed the best figures of 3-47
in his 10 overs and he and Kieran Wood
made a good start in chasing the target.
They raced to 60 in nine overs before a
severe bout of cramp forced Wood off the
field, and although replacement Jamie
Young started confidently, Wood’s
departure for 29 undoubtedly lifted the
home side, who were further boosted
when four wickets fell for only 15 runs
inside eight overs with the loss of O’Flynn
for 35 a massive blow when he was
stumped by Collins off Anslow.
Gilmour (33), Stephen Bird (14) and
Bishop began a rebuilding operation, but
there was ground to make up plenty to do
when number 10 Chris Bird joined Bishop
at the crease with 33 runs still required.
Bishop took the senior role as the pair
chipped away, and when Bishop smashed
the returning Sean O’Dwyer for a
towering straight six, Thatcham moved
past 200 with victory in sight.
In a final roll of the dice, skipper
Hameed re-introduced young spinner
Ibraaheem Ahmed and when Bird
smashed him high over mid-on for what
everyone thought to be a crucial
maximum, the game seemed to be all but
over. But as Thatcham began to celebrate,
they were stunned into silence as Ahmed
Faraz, sprinting from long-off, stuck out a
speculative hand to pouch an
unbelievable catch.
Thatcham still needed nine to win as
last man Ben Denton-Powell got to the
crease, he and Bishop manoeuvring their
way to 209 when Ahmed held his nerve to
bowl Bishop for 21 and leave Thatcham
with little to show for their efforts.
OXFORDSHIRE CA LEAGUE: West Ilsley
sustained a second successive
Division Four defeat when going
down by 16 runs at Deddington.
The Ilsley attack was on top as Andy
Brown and Nicole Beesley each claimed
three wickets and Wayne Lyford and
Patrick MacKenzie-Charrington two
apiece, but 32 extras and last batsmen
David Victor (32) and Robert Preston
(16) hoisted the total to 141.
Adam Barnes held together Ilsley’s
upper order with us 32 before Lyford
(19) and Tom Carlisle (12) propped up
the middle. But despite Chris Walker’s
unbeaten 20, the tail went cheaply and
Ilsley dropped short at 125 all out.
Bedwyn’s shaky start
WEST OF ENGLAND PREMIER LEAGUE: Great
Bedwyn’s bid to improve upon last
season got off to a shaky start with a
103-run home defeat at the hands of
Devizes.
Openers David Bromley (34) and Joe
Wookey put on 80 for the visitors,
Wookey going on to slam three sixes
and 14 fours in his 100 as Devizes posted
259-8 in their 50 overs, Max Andrews
leading the Bedwyn attack with his 4-45.
The home side never got going and
were soon 19-2 and laboured to 36-4 as
John Palmer attempted to hold things
together with his 31.
He went at 103-6, leaving Josh Quinn
(31) and Chris Blundy (24 not out) to
add some resistance as Bedwyn were all
out inside 45 overs from 156 with Tim
Saye taking 4-14 in 10 overs and Tom
Pike 4-46.
Ilsley downed
at Deddington
BERKSHIRE LEAGUE: It’s early days yet,
but Sulhamstead’s nine-wicket
dismissal of visiting Welford Park
put them at the top of the embryo
Premier Division table and Park at
the bottom after the season’s opening
day.
The decision to make Park bat first
paid off as the home bowlers cut into the
ranks after openers Ben Myers and
Stephen Yahia had put on 21.
Myers departure for 23 of the first 33
runs signalled a collapse to 76 all out
with only Greg Griffith adding double
figures while Craig Palmer claimed 4-16,
Shiva Aruna 3-22 and Phil Braithwaite
2-8.
Steve Belcher (27) and Ryan Brown (29
not out) put on 53 in reply, Brown and
Chris Mercer (16 not out) completing the
job in 20 overs.
l l l
Mortimer West End’s first match
following relegation to Division One
produced a seven-wicket win over
visitors Emmbrook and Bearwood.
The visitors made decent progress to
191-4 with opener Ollie Williams (51) and
Matt Smart (68) leading the way with a
third wicket stand of 108 before West
End took later wicket with Jay Patel
claiming 3-35 and Nick Kingston 2-35
before Wokingham declared at 238-9
after 43 overs.
But West End made good use of the
overs handed to them, Jason Searancke
and Neil Storkey (49) posting a first
wicket stand of 126.
Searancke fell for 84 and Will Bray for
19, but skipper Kingston (28 not out) and
Steve Audsley (44 not out) put together
an unbroken stand of 61 to take their
side to 239-3 in the 45th over.
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Sulhamstead II went down by eight
wickets at Ibis Mapledurham after
faltering in the middle.
They reached 77-2 with Jason Doole
making 33 and Matthew Burrows 35 but
then had to rely upon tail-enders
Gurunt (38) and Babu Loganathan (15)
to take the all-out total to 177.
Skipper Burrows claimed two early
victims but there were no more
successes as David Drury and skipper
Matt Jones made 74 and 73 respectively
in an unbroken third wicket stand of 152
to wrap it up inside 42 overs.
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Bradfield signed on with a seven
wicket win at home to Goring on
Thames.
Goring’s innings was dominated by
number three Gary Niederheitmann’s
91 of a total of 189-9 in the 45 overs
before he became one of Mike Reekie’s
3-29.
Bradfield’s reply was given a head
start by Tim Smith (64) and Ben Hardy
(46) in an opening partnership worth 99,
after which Paul Hale chipped in with 29
and James Fox and Matt Evans with 16
and 15 respectively as the hosts got
home to 190-3 with more than four overs
to spare.
l l l
Purley III squeezed out a one-run
win over host West Reading III at
their Sulhamstead home in Division
Three.
Krish Weerasamy top-scored for
Purley in their 157 total, and they had
Wests in trouble at 73-6 in reply.
Wasim Akram lift Wests’ hopes with
his 51, marshalling a late rally that saw
Oman Bilal make 21 and Imran Razaq 10
before Pahirathan Selveratnam claimed
the wicket of Bilal as one of his 3-28 to
secure the narrowest of wins.
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Mortimer’s Division Three arrival
was marked by having the lesser
share of their draw at Peppard Stoke
Row III.
Opener Hugh Asquith and George Lee
cut open the attack to make 110 and 85
respectively in a total of 155-5 in the 45
overs.
Mortimer also had two stand-out
batsmen in reply with opener Nigel
Payne making 45 and Archie Fitz 76 in a
second wicket stand of 114, but after that
it was a question of survival as nobody
else got into double figures and
Mortimer saw out time at 159-8.
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Welford Park II eased over the line to
a five wicket win over visitors
Bradfield II.
Put in to bat, Bradfield looked well set
at 61-1 when Dan Filmer fell for 32 after
a stand of 55 with Ed Dack, who was left
took usher home the innings with his
unbeaten 62 as Bradfield reached 159-8
in their 45 overs.
Park were given a solid start by Jacob
McManus (32) and Manu Chadha (48) in
an opening stand of 79.
Henderson Alleyne added 21 and John
Westbrook 15 to maintain the
momentum as Park reached their target
at 160-5 with just over 10 overs to spare.
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Falkland Development failed to take
advantage of excellent batting condi-
tions as they went down by four
wickets at home to Sulhamstead III
in Division Four.
They posted a modest 140 in 40 overs,
which could have been worse but for
some lusty late order hitting by George
Hawkins (36) and Chris Garrett (19).
Despite losing a wicket in the first
over, Sulhamstead were soon well ahead
of the rate with Bob Norris (21) and
Singh Digvijay (24) hitting out before
veteran Chris Garrett pegged them back
with 2-25 and keen fielding and steady
bowling from the Falkland youngsters
made some inroads into the visitors’
middle order.
Skipper Richard Graham kept his
nerve with an unbeaten 24 however, and
the visitors hit their target at 142-6 with
plenty of overs remaining.
Park knocked out by Sully attack
THAMES VALLEY LEAGUE: Rhodri Lewis
claimed eight wickets and an
unbeaten 70 but still could not steer
his Thatcham III side to victory over
North Maidenhead III in Division
Seven A.
The visitors were steered away by
openers Adam (93) and Danyal
Mumtaz (44) until both fell to Lewis,
who went on to claim every wicket to
fall for 58 runs his 13 overs as
Maidenhead declared at 248-8 after
45 overs.
The target was a tough call,
despite Evan Pocock’s 53, and Lewis’
unbeaten 70 and 28 not out from
Jack North took them safely to 181-3
at the close.
Rhodri’s double
blast resisted
NEWLY-promoted East Woodhay II
opened their first campaign in the
Hampshire League’s Regional One
North with a seven-wicket win at
Rotherwick ITW.
On a usually difficult batting wicket,
Woodhay inserted the home side, but
faced stubborn resistance and despite
conceding few runs, the bowlers were
unable to break the opening partnership
until they had reached 52 when skipper
Mark Chapman got rid of Wheeler for a
stubborn 19 via a superb catch in the
gully from Daren Both.
Thirteen-old debutant left-armer Alex
Kerr delivered a fine spell to take 1-13
that helped to restrict Rotherwick to
155-7 in their 42 overs.
With only a modest target, openers
Adrian Batchelor and 14-year old Alex
Jordan made a careful start in putting
on 78 before Batchelor holed out for 28.
But Jordan batted with skill and
maturity to hit the winning boundary,
bringing up his maiden senior 100 with
three overs to spare as Woodhay cruised
to 156-3.
p East Woodhay’s first XI coasted
home by 10 wickets at home to
Ellingham in their first game since
winning promotion to County Two of
the Hampshire League.
The home side were limited to a total
of 168 as Alan Williams claimed 3-25,
Ben Lawrance 3-35 and Duncan Johnson
2-32, and the runs were knocked off by
openers Tom Flack and skipper Joe
Lawrance, who made 87 and 75
respectively as Woodhay hit the 171
mark in the 22nd over.
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Promising start at the higher level
Newbury Weekly News