THERE was no way to separate the sides as Leighton Buzzard took on rivals Great Brickhill on Saturday, with the outcome decided on the very last ball.
After 100 overs, both Cherwell League Division One sides came away physically and mentally exhausted as the local bragging right were shared in a dramatic draw which saw both sides post the same score.
Leighton started the day in fourth place and were given the added boost of winning the toss. Captain Phillip Whatmore opted to throw the ball to his bowlers, fancying his side’s chances on a damp wicket.
Hosts Great Brickhill got off to a quick start with Garth Davson immediately putting the Leighton bowlers under pressure, as Andy Ward battled doggedly for early runs at the other end.
After 13 overs Brickhill were 49 without loss, with Davson doing the majority of the work, leading the scoring with 45.
In fact so dominant was Davson that when Ward fell for 8, bowled by Tom Light, the home side had moved on to 73.
Leighton continued to pick up wickets, with Graeme Carter (10) and the dangerous Anton De Beer (10) following in quick succession as the visitors took control.
Jack Kempster (4-67) bowled well and picked up wickets in the lower order, before Davson finally made a mistake when he found a fielder on the boundary off Riaan Krynauw to depart for a superb 132.
Cameo performances from Nick Cadman (30) and Greg MacDonald (20) eventually saw Brickhill to a total of 246-8 from their 53 overs.
In reply Leighton would have just 47 overs to reach the same total, but got off to a steady start with Light and Chris Thompson until the first wicket fell at the hands of Nick Tweed in the 11th over for 31.
Tight bowling restricted Town to just 94-3 with 24 over gone, but Light was looking in good form, despite losing regular partners at the other end.
The tide then began to turn in the visitors’ favour as Whatmore came to the crease, with Leighton eating into the Brickhill total.
Light was eventually out for 78, while Whatmore made a valuable 71 as they set up a grandstand finish heading into the final two overs with everything to play for.
Town looked the favourites to take the victory, but Tweed bowled a perfect penultimate over with a double wicket maiden to leave the visitors eight down but still in a good position to win the game – needing six off the final over to snatch an unlikely win.
Doug Arris had the honour of bowling the last over, and a single and a well crafted boundary 4 had the scores level.
So it all came down to the final ball. With Leighton needing one run to win, Arris superbly bowled Dave Roberts to end the game with the scores level as the away side totalled 246-9.
Great Brickhill took 17 points for their efforts and Leighton 13.
The draw doesn’t help Leighton in the sense that it dropped them to fifth in the table, but Brickhill climb to seventh as they leapfrog over Buckingham.
The two teams will do it all again at Bell Close in August.
division two
Long Marston suffered a heavy loss away at the hands of Abingdon Vale, with key players absent.
Missing three of their most senior players, and with Simon Robinson standing in as captain, Long Marston lost the toss and with probably the youngest ever first team put out by the club, were put into bat on a difficult pitch, with a very wet outfield.
The innings started badly as in-form opener Matt Wareham was dismissed in the first over. Tight bowling from Abingdon meant despite batting for 50 overs, only opener Andy Pierce with a battling 36 made any real impact with the bat and Long Marston were bowled out for just 109.
The Abingdon openers got off to a good start, but tight bowling from Simon McLeman and Adam Wells frustrated them. Chances came but dropped catches cost valuable points for the team.
Wells did make the breakthrough and more good bowling meant Abingdon ended up 111-3, with Wells picking up two wickets, and McLeman one.
A seven wicket loss for Long Marston was a disappointing result, but with a home game against newly promoted Twyford next week they will be looking to get their season back on track.
division four
Leighton’s 2nds received a much needed boost to their confidence with a comfortable 49 run victory against visitors Hanborough in Division Four.
The visitors to Bell Close won the toss and put Town in to bat first. They made their best start of the season so far with a 51 run opening partnership with Kirk Brazier (36) playing the leading role, with support from Brad Gates (29).
The score had moved on to 81 when two wickets fell in an over, with Gates bowled and Alfie Ruston (11) run out.
And when Adam Culley (10) was dismissed with the score on 95, Town seemed to be succumbing to their bad habit of losing wickets too quickly.
However, Gareth Benger (39) and Sam Janes (17) built a vital partnership in the middle of the innings with 62 runs being added before Benger was caught with the scoreboard showing 157.
Of the remaining Leighton players Simon Halhead also made it into double figures as Town were dismissed for 195.
The visitors used eight different bowlers in their search for wickets as the home side built a defendable total.
Culley made the initial breakthrough for Leighton, removing Hanborough’s opener Dove (8). And the same player then took an outstanding one-handed catch over his head to remove the dangerous Gorman (23) off the bowling of Yogesh Mistry.
When Halhead bowled Neilson (27) Town’s players began to realise that victory was a possibility.
There is an old adage in cricket that get a wicket and you can usually get two and this happened for Town as two fell with the score on 105 and two more with the score on 118.
With confidence flowing catches were being held and there was an excellent run out from Ruston. Visiting skipper Leach (25) was the last wicket to fall with a smart piece of wicketkeeping by Ben Smith to leave Hanborough all out for 146.
Leighton captain Andy Smith took a fantastic 3-19, plus there were two wickets each for Culley and Mistry, and one apiece for Halhead and Brazier.
Town take a much needed 25 points from the win and a huge boost to their confidence as they climb two places, off the bottom to eighth in the table.
>> Division Four leaders Cublington picked up their fourth win from their first five games as they saw off third placed Stokenchurch by five runs.
Losing toss, Cubs were inserted on a track that was wet, and looked tricky to bat on.
Initially, batsmen applied themselves well with Bill Burton choosing to pull the short ball to the short leg side boundary whilst Jamie Leggett was more subdued.
Burton tried once too often, holing out at square leg for 15. Dan Catt made his intentions clear from the outset and runs flowed freely before a moment of madness saw a second run called where the only realistic outcome was a run out.
And so it was, with Catt (18) a yard short of his ground as the bails were removed. Pip Webb joined Leggett and the two worked well to push the score towards 100 before Webb was bowled for 29.
When Leggett (31) was run out in the 30th over, followed by the loss of Jenkins for 0, Cubs wobbled on 95-5.
The situation didn’t improve, with skipper Tomlinson (23) the only real contributor from the lower order as wickets fell regularly. At 131 all out Cubs were disappointed with their efforts.
Faced with the prospect of having to defend a low total, Cubs opened up with ‘wobble and spin’ from Philip Rice and Greg Jenkins respectively.
Neither had an immediate impact, and Stokenchurch raced to 50 in 10 overs before Nick Talbot plucked a catch out of nowhere in the gully to remove Brown of the bowling of Rice.
Rice lifted spirits further having Duffy trapped LBW in his next over, but the game seemed to drift away from Cubs, as Stokenchurch reached 90-2 by the 18th.
The introduction of Jono Waugh provided the spark from which the Cubs players generated hope. A double wicket maiden in his second over had Arshad and Asad latif back in the shed, and despite Stokenchurch needing just 30 runs to win with six wickets remaining, the belief was with Cubs.
Jenkins, returning at the top end, turned belief into expectation taking four middle order wickets for nothing in four overs.
At eight down Skipper Tomlinson took the brave decision to go double spin, introducing Dan Catt at the bottom end.
With Jenkins taking his fourth wicket and Stokenchurch’s ninth in the 32nd over, Catt chucked up a tempter in the next that was appropriately knocked down the throat of Pip Webb at deep mid wicket to have Stokenchurch out for 126.
Game over. 131 defended, by a side that seems to have forgotten how to lose at the moment.
division six
Julian Blackwell was the hero for Great Brickhill 2nds as they cruised to victory over Oxford & Bletchingdon Nondescripts in Division Six.
With their tails up from the pervious week’s victory, Brickhill lost the toss and were asked to bat. A painfully slow start on a damp wicket followed by some promising partnerships helped Brickhill to a decent total of 190-3 off 53 overs, with Chris Jones scoring an unbeaten 82 and Andy Robson hitting 46.
In reply Blackwell opened the bowling and quickly picked up wickets, finishing with stunning figures of 6-30.
And Brickhill put in a strong fielding performance and the remaining wickets were shared between, Burrows, Burke and Morris. The hosts were eventually bowled out for 107 with seven overs remaining for an 83-run win.
division eight
Cublington 2nds had to settle for a winning draw from their match against Kingston Bagpuize.
Cublington enjoyed a fantastic 105 not out from Tim Taylor and some very economic bowling, but it wasn’t quite enough to see them home for another win as they stay top of the table.
Batting first they lost Sam Carter early on, with Steve George (26) and Kit Gordon-Stuart (34) able to steady the innings before Taylor came in at the fall of the second wicket.
With shots all round the wicket, Taylor dominated the Kingston bowlers and was backed by Chris Baines (22) and Howard Sayers (22 not out) as Cublington reached 226-5.
In reply Kingston Bagpuize lost both openers cheaply to Raynor-Thompson and Gadsby before Morton (30) and Kybard (19) held the middle order together.
Excellent line and length bowling from Cublington, 13 overs from Tom Gadsby only yielding 27 runs for his wicket with Steve George 2-7 and Howard Sayers 1-15, kept Kingston’s runs to a minimum.
With the fire and pace of William Raynor-Thompson (3-30) Cubs were ever hopeful of taking all 10 Bagpuize wickets. Morton (9 not out) and Ward (19 not out) batting at eight and nine hung on and saw out the overs, with Kingston reaching 141-7 to take a share of the spoils.
beds county league
Leighton made the short journey to Ampthill for only their third game of the Premier Division season, but fell to a heavy 87-run defeat.
The home team won the toss and opted to bat first. Town made a bright start and the signs seemed good as Jack Kempster and Phillip Whatmore had them reeling at 24-3 off just six overs.
Home team captain James Kerr dropped anchor and together with Will Sneath staged a recovery with a partnership worth 66 runs. When the latter was out the score stood at 128-5.
The remaining wickets added 62 runs of which the last five batsmen added just seven runs. The remainder went to Kerr who was the last man out for an excellent score of 110 out of his side’s total of 190. Garth Davson took 4-25 with three wickets for Kempster, two for Whatmore and one for Benger.
Town were then confronted with some excellent bowling from Ampthill’s opening bowlers. Beds Minor Counties opening bowler Sneath was in excellent form and removed Davson and Antony Francis in successive deliveries.
A dogged effort from opener Tom Light (22) ended when he was out leg before wicket. Brad Gates made it into double figures with 11 hard earned runs and only Phil Whatmore showed any real form with the top score in the innings of 44.
The remainder of the innings simply crumbled and Town were dismissed for a very disappointing 103.
four counties league
EATON Bray’s great start to the Division One campaign was dealt another blow against New City (Milton Keynes) as the bowlers took all the plaudits.
Early league leaders Bray got off to a great start, bowling out mid-table City for just 120. But with the bat in hand, they failed to get going. Losing regular wickets they fell for a paltry 91, a defeat of 29 runs, slipping to fourth in the table in the process.
Eggington Foresters set what looked to be an impressive total with the bat as they took on Elstow. Zahid Khan (75) had helped Foresters to post 177 all out, but after taking two early wickets, the home side eased over the winning line for a six wicket win, with Foresters now just one place above the relegation zone.
Elsewhere, leaders Milton Keynes City beat Milton Keynes by three wickets, North Crawley saw off New Bradwell in an 83 run win, and Olney lost by 46 runs to Newport Pagnell.
In Division Two, Milton Bryan held on for a losing draw when they took on leaders Studham. Chasing 175, opener Peter Young top scored with 44, but the lower order faltered and the visitors could only score 135-8, seeing them fall to fourth in the table.
Thurleigh beat Biddenham by five wickets, bottom club Aylesbury won for the first time this season in beating Old Bradwell by 147 runs, Aspley Guise picked up a four wicket win over Buckland & Aston Clinton, but Open University and Cranfield University’s match was washed out.
The weather also took its toll on most of the Division Three fixtures, but Stoke Hammond’s game against Caddington survived – though Hammond would have probably preferred the rain. Caddington set 192-6 in their 44 overs before dominating with ball in hand, knocking Hammond out with just 91 on the board for a 101-run win.
The only other game to go ahead was New Bradwell’s clash with leaders Bromham – the Bedfordshire side easing to victory by 179 runs as New Bradwell remain bottom.
Only one game survived in Division Four, the match between Harlington and Tring Park 4ths. Restricting the home side to a total of 122-9, Tring Park made light work of the chase, getting there in 33 overs, to leap up to second in the table as others had to watch their games get washed away.
It was a similar story in Division Five, with just one game being played, while four fell by the wayside.
Milton Bryan 2nds’ game against Olney Town 2nds went ahead and despite a fairly promising opening, Bryan’s middle order collapsed in style as John Pearson (4-37) did most of the damage with the ball. Bryan limped to 129-8.
In reply, Olney struggled to get going with the bat and lost several quick wickets. Adam Barrick (37) and Pearson (32) settled things down, but the wickets fell regularly as Bryan sensed victory was on the cards. But their low total came back to haunt them as Olney made it over the line, albeit nine wickets down.
The sun was shining down on Division Six as all games went ahead as planned. Stoke Hammond 2nds moved up to seventh place as they dominated proceedings against Caddington 2nds. Robert Tooth’s fine 4-23 reduced the home side to 52 all out, which Hammond quickly rattled off to win by six wickets.
Winslow 2nds beat Bletchley, MK City 2nds beat Buckland & Aston Clinton 2nds, Wing 2nds saw off Edlesborough and Little Horwood beat St Andrews.