Temperatures soar in six hour thriller
Buckland & Aston Clinton CC II’s – 181 for 9 off 40 overs
St Andrews CC – 174 all out off 35.1 overs
The idyllic British summers afternoon, clear blue skies, scorching temperatures, the peal of church bells in the background and the sound of leather on willow; Buckland & Aston Clinton cricket club seconds played host to it all on Saturday as they locked horns with St Andrews CC for just shy of six hours in a match that went to the wire as the home side won by just seven runs! The Buckinghamshire outfit batting first set their guests a hefty total of one hundred and eight-one to chase down but in reply the Bedfordshire side looked to be making light work of that target until key wickets fell and their late order simply couldn’t quite get them over the line.
Buckland chose to bat first and lost Liam Smith in the first over, Rob Goldney came to the crease to partner opener Max Burgess who went on to make twenty-four before he was bowled, Neil Roberts entered the play and his partnership with Goldney added a superb 73 to the score until the latter was eventually caught with his score on twenty-two. Ollie McKenna was stumped, Roberts went on to reach his half century before having his bails removed, Casey Dawson was trapped leg before but at the opposite end Lewis Richards was digging in on his way to twenty-five and was to remain unbeaten until the end. Tom Walker added a valuable thirteen until he was caught, the home side eventually running out of overs with their score on 181, those late order runs proving essentially later in the game; Chris Sheffield taking three wickets for thirty runs off his nine overs for St Andrews.
Ben Wood & Henry Faulkner got the away side off to a flying start until the former was bowled by Walker with the scoreboard on thirty-eight, Adam Perkins made ten, Chris Sheffield four but Faulkner went on to reach his half century and when Gavin Shotbolt was removed for seventeen the score was 121-4 & victory seemed inevitable. However, when Burgess bowled the remining opener just five runs later the tide seemingly turned, Josef Hardy and Abu Kalam added a further twenty to leave their side needing thirty-six with four wickets remaining but when Kalam was trapped lbw and new batsmen Charlie Wallis was caught without adding a run the momentum swung back to Buckland.
Alan Perkins faced fourteen balls without scoring, Tony Woodham run out by Smith left the visitors needing fourteen off their last pairing, Hardy reached thirty-nine but with just seven runs needed to win Burgess bowled the impressive Hardy to bag the twenty-five points for the hosts. Casey Dawson finished with figures of three for twenty-one off his allotted nine overs.
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