CUBLINGTON’S fantastic success over recent years continued this season as they secured promotion up to Cherwell League Division Three at the first time of asking.
Also promoted from Division Five 12 months earlier, Cubs finished second in Division Four this summer, just behind Horspath 2nds who won the title.
In a season which saw them lose just one game out of 18, Cubs closed their campaign with a 175-run thrashing of Oxford 3rds on Saturday.
Winning the toss, Cubs skipper Paul Tomlinson had no hesitation choosing to bat on a glorious day. And despite the early loss of Bill Burton, Cubs’ batsmen showed again how efficient they are at piling on big totals when batting first.
Jamie Leggett and Dan Catt made good progress early on but ultimately became tied down with good bowling changes from Oxford.
Catt (26) was the first to fall, bowled by Cheten Walia in the 22nd over with Cubs on 83-2. Pip Webb joined Leggett and a partnership of 75 quickly brought the latter’s first 50 of the season before he fell to Nawaz caught at mid on for 64.
Webb pushed on himself, striking the ball well to all parts of the ground, and when he finally mis-timed a drive and was caught at long on for 73, Cubs were 212-3 with 10 overs still to come.
Nick Talbot and the in-form Greg Jenkins were able to take advantage of the platform, pushing the score to 287 by the close with Talbot 43 no and Jenkins 45 no.
Cublington feared a tough afternoon lay ahead in trying to bowl out Oxford on a good deck. But those fears were quickly dispelled as Ben Orchard took a sharp caught and bowled chance to remove Julian with only his third ball.
Phil Rice then joined the action from the other end, having Miles caught by Leggett at short leg.
When Nick Talbot produced the catch of the season at gully to remove Morgan for 0, Oxford were on 32-3 and offering little resistance.
Rice compounded Oxford’s misery in the very next over, bowling the classy looking Nash (20) with an unplayable delivery, however the pairing of Porter and Biel added some respectability to the Oxford score – batting well and making Cublington work hard for their fifth wicket.
When it came it was in the unusual shape of Burton, bowling gentle away swingers it was a late in-ducker to the left handed Porter that resulted in another fine catch from Leggett.
Burton’s respectable figures of 1-17 in five overs suggests he might have been underused during the season.
With the partnership broken it was left to Andy Lane and Greg Jenkins to mop up the tail. Jenkins trapped Biel LBW in his second over, and Lane bowled Khan with his second ball.
A flurry of late runs followed from Cheten Walia, but Lane finished the innings after hitting off stump twice in two balls to remove Cheten Walia and Nawaz.
Oxford where 112 all out, with the margin of victory some 175 runs – a fitting end to an excellent season for Cublington.
>> Leighton Buzzard 2nds knew that they were effectively relegated before their game against Buckingham Town 2nds, but were determined to turn in a decent performance at Bell Close.
Town won the toss and decided to bat first, but skipper Andy Smith must have regretted that decision when the scoreboard was reading 45-6 after just 16 overs.
However, David Pope (63) and James Raine (56) set about some fine damage repair work with a vital seventh wicket stand worth 79 runs.
Pope in particular was in confident mood as he stroked no less than 14 boundary 4s in his 57 ball knock.
When he was dismissed, Raine took over and dispatched the ball to the boundary on eight occasions.
Yogesh Mistry (24) joined in the tail end rescue attempt which saw Town close their innings on 206 – a score which seemed quite unlikely just two hours earlier.
Buckingham’s innings then followed in a similar pattern. Opener Brunning carried his bat throughout the visitors’ innings for an excellent 96 not out but there was early carnage at the other end.
Gareth Benger took three early wickets, Simon Halhead one and Mark Burfoot achieved a run out to leave the away side on 32-5 off 13 overs.
But the innings then revived with a century stand between Brunning and Johnson. Leighton turned to occasional bowler (but usually wicketkeeper) Dave Roberts who duly obliged by trapping Johnson (40) leg before wicket.
He then had Emerson (17) caught by Burfoot. At 185-8 with overs in hand the visitors were in favourite position but Benger returned to the bowling attack and mopped up the tail in taking two more wickets.
Buckingham were dismissed for 202, just four runs short of the home team. Gareth Benger won the bowling honours for Town with 5-75, with Dave Roberts 2-32 and Simon Halhead 1-15.
Leighton earn 25 points for a superb win, but it was too little too late to save them as they finished second bottom of the table.
division one
LEIGHTON’S cricketers travelled to Buckingham for their last game of the 2012 season with the clear objective of winning in order to retain their position in the Cherwell League’s top division.
Plan A was to win the toss, bat first, score around 220 runs and then take enough wickets in order to secure 11 points which would guarantee safety.
Buckingham, who were in a lower league position before the game, began with a similar requirement to Leighton, needing a victory, and they probably had an identical copy of plan A too.
Well Antony Francis won the toss and Town batted first. And they made a bright start with 27 off the first four overs with the ball zipping over a very fast outfield to the boundary.
But with the score on 27, Tom Light (11) then edged one to the Buckingham keeper, while Chris Thompson looked to be continuing on from his excellent innings at Cumnor two weeks ago.
He soon had three 4s and a big 6 in the scorebook, but then spooned a half hearted cover drive which went straight to cover point, gratefully snapped up to end his contribution on 28 runs.
Phil Whatmore (7) then edged to the keeper, Dan Scott (10) was caught at slip off the spinner, and when Kirk Brazier (14) was bowled Leighton were 83-5 before the halfway stage had been reached.
A string of LBW decisions removed the lower order and only Sam Janes (45) offered any substantial resistance. He marshalled the last three wickets and 41 runs were added, even though the last three batsmen did not score a run between them.
His key contribution included four 4s and two 6s, and allowed Leighton to close on 155 runs, well below their target.
But the home side made a poor start. The opening batsmen tried to steal a cheeky single to a misfield in the slips. Janes recovered quickly and threw down the wicket at the bowlers’ end with Lightfoot (0) well short of his ground.
Alan Priestley then induced the other opening batsman Keegan to edge one into keeper Tim O’Leary’s gloves and at 23-2 Leighton were slightly in front at this stage of the contest.
However, Pearson (58) and Laycock (21) then produced the best stand of the game, adding 54 runs for the third wicket as the visitors struggled to make the breakthrough.
Laycock was eventually caught by Whatmore fielding at short leg off Lee Selfe. Unfortunately Town then dropped Pearson at midwicket and a feeling of inevitable defeat began to pervade the team.
Some poor fielding allowed runs to leak away and although Selfe and Scott took further wickets, Buckingham were able to coast home to a five wicket victory on 156-5 with overs to spare.
So Leighton earned seven of the points they wanted. There were then some anxious moments as a number of phone calls were made to various grounds to establish the outcome of a key match which would determine who would fill the third relegation position.
The outcome of that game was received with great elation by both teams, but especially Leighton when it was eventually confirmed that the result had gone in Town’s favour and their Division One status was ensured for another year.
>> Great Brickhill secured a superb third place finish in their debut Division One season, and finished in style with an eight wicket victory over Oxford & Bletchingdon Nondescripts.
The visitors were bowled out for just 156 as Brickhill’s Doug Aris (5-39) and Garth Davson (3-64) produced strong bowling spells.
And the home side’s win was sealed in comfortable fashion as Garth Davson (77) and Nick Cadman (47 no) fired off the winning runs as Brickhill closed on 157-2.