The 2024 Home Counties Premier League season started last weekend with the T20 Cup competition.
Read ETDC Digital Media’s report:
After a wet and dismal start to the season, which sees teams like Finchampstead unable to play a single game as of yet, the T20 Cup has faired no different.
Out of four possible group stage final-day format competitions, only two were able to be played in which both Banbury and Bicester & North Oxford reigned champions, respectively.
In a zoom-conference coin toss, surely one of the first of its kind, High Wycombe CC and Henley CC had luck on their side as they found their way through the online rounds.
But in a day full of cricket, Bicester & North Oxford triumphed. In talking to their captain, Ryan Moore, he described how they had no expectations going into the competition and are proud of the way they executed their plans.
We had no expectations going into the day, the pre match talks we’re based around ourselves being the underdogs so let’s use that to our advantage. If we play our best cricket and execute our plans with bat and ball we know we can make things difficult for the more established HCPL clubs.
The first game saw Bicester & North Oxford take on Great Brickhill and win by 45 runs. The visitors managed to scramble to 137-6 off their 20 overs, on a difficult and tricky pitch. Zain Stoop managed a blissful 66 off 39 deliveries to help make the total defendable.
In reply, wickets were shared between Daniel Clarke and Ryan Moore who picked up three wickets each. Moore had a slightly better economy after gong for just 6 runs in his 2 overs, which hampered the Great Brickhill opposition. As such, Great Brickhill were bowled out for 92 in the 16th over.
With their confidence soaring, Bicester & North Oxford faced off against Amersham and continued their winnings ways with a four wicket victory.
The Amersham outfit were put into bat first adding 126 to the total within the twenty overs. Both Meet Raja (32) and Mo Choudhry (38) had good starts, striking around a run-a-ball. But with Zian Stoop picking up four wickets in his four overs, going for just 8 runs in total, the Amersham batting line-up struggled to increase the pace in late innings.
Bicester & North Oxford started poorly crumbling to 73-6 and looking unlikely to continue their run-of-form. But some excellent striking from Dan Savin (32* from 35) and Josh Towell blasting 29* from 14 balls, the pair supported their team over the line; Bicester & North Oxford becoming the third team to join the finals day, later in July.
Skipper Ryan Moore continued to say:
We are competitive players and everyone in our squad want’s to win but our focus will always be on the next game and not get carried away. It’s a long season and sometimes you can ahead of yourself. We can’t wait to get going against Stoke Green this weekend and see how we go in the HCPL T20 semi finals.
Over at the Banbury , White Post Road, it was the home side who came out as victorious after defeating both Chesham and 2022 league champions, Aston Rowant.
After posting 132-6 in their twenty overs, Chesham looked to have scored just under par, despite Matt Rance’s efforts of 37 at the top order.
Waqas Hussain led the Banbury charge with 77 off just 35 deliveries, including 8 sixes. He was supported opening the batting with Richard Simpson (28) and Kieran Coyne’s 18 from just 13 deliveries. After just 12.2 overs, Banbury had crossed the finish line having only lost a single wicket.
Banbury said
It was a resounding victory in Round 1.
In Round 2, Banbury won the toss and elected to bat on a good-looking wicket despite the wet winter. This time, it was Ali Short who led the way with the bat. His 72 not out from 30 deliveries ceased the deal and set Banbury up with a tough opening total of 164-4.
In return, Aston Rowant showed promise with Chris Watling (23), Joshua Smith (21) and Ivan Lockem (19). However, whilst each made a start, the failure to go on to score big ultimately meant that the Rowant XI were short of the target. A late order collapse in which the last 5 batsmen failed to score above 10 respectively allowed Banbury to take the win. Special credit must go to Ollie Wright who starred with the ball, taking home figures of 4-36 and enabling the Rowant collapse.
HCPCL Chair Michael Roberts commented:
Despite the disappointment of losing two of the T20 groups to the weather, We had six excellent contests at Banbury and Great Brickhill with Banbury and Bicester & NO CCs running out winners of their respective groups. Excellent feedback from participants and Great Brickhill’s running commentary throughout the day and general festive atmosphere really added to the day. Well done GBCC! Also big thanks to Steve Harris and Andrew Holland for all their hard work in making everything proceed so smoothly!
The Finals Day will consist of High Wycombe, Henley, Banbury and Bicester & North Oxford. Venue to follow shortly.
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