Only Five Points Separate The Top Four In Division One!
Lloyd Sabin continued his extraordinary season with the bat, and a remarkable five-wicket burst from Tom Ettridge arrived in under three overs, leaving the top of Home Counties Premier Cricket League Division One as congested as ever after a weekend that left just five points separating the leading four sides.
At Finchampstead, it was Sabin, the division’s leading run-scorer by some distance with 604 runs at an average of 120.80, who once again took centre stage. His 124 from 150 balls, laced with 12 fours and a six, anchored Banbury’s reply to Finchampstead’s imposing 274 for nine, a total built on Ben Salter’s battling 99 and Eddie Campion’s rapid 59 from just 54 balls.
Charlie Hill and David Eaton shared six wickets between them for the hosts, but Sabin’s class saw Banbury to 251 for nine from their 56 overs before the match petered into a draw, with the result recorded in Banbury’s favour.
The draw did little to disturb the top of the table: Finchampstead stay top on 157 points, with Banbury’s share of the spoils enough to climb to third.
There was late drama of a different kind at Oxford Downs, where Henley’s innings disintegrated. Having reached 50 without alarm, Henley collapsed to 85 all out inside 27 overs as Tom Ettridge produced a spell of five wickets for just four runs in two and five-sixths overs.
Oliver Armstrong had earlier chipped in with three, but it was Ettridge’s burst that finished the innings in a flurry.
The heavy defeat leaves Henley second-bottom of the table, one of two sides to slip further down the standings this weekend.
Oxford Downs strolled to their target with Luke Maslen unbeaten on 53, sealing a maximum-points win with more than 42 overs to spare; a result that keeps them second in the table, just three points adrift of Finchampstead at the top.
Harefield were made to work harder for their win against Great Brickhill, but got there in the end thanks to contrasting contributions with bat and ball.
Jordan McLeod, who sits ninth in the division’s bowling charts, took 4 for 50, while Stephen Croft matched him with 4 for 44 as Great Brickhill were bowled out for 182, only Jonathan Cater’s unbeaten 55 offering serious resistance.
In reply, half-centuries from Daniel Ogden (64) and Will Shepherd (55 not out) guided Harefield home in just 36.4 overs for a comfortable 25-point haul, moving them up to fifth.
Great Brickhill, by contrast, prop up the table in bottom spot after a second successive slide down the standings.
Elsewhere, Aston Rowant and Wokingham played out a tense draw at Butts Way that ultimately swung Aston Rowant’s way on points.
Ethan Barksfield’s 65 underpinned Aston Rowant’s 235 all out, with Sachin Sivanandan doing the early and late damage for Wokingham, finishing with 5 for 55.
Wokingham’s reply was built almost single-handedly around Gihahn Cloete, whose fine 116 kept his side in contention throughout, well supported by Jacob Clark’s 36.
Maximillian Mannering’s 4 for 70 proved the difference as Wokingham fell agonisingly short on 226 for nine, leaving Aston Rowant the winning draw and the bulk of the points, though both sides remain rooted in the bottom half of the table: Wokingham sixth, Aston Rowant seventh.
High Wycombe, meanwhile, were dominant at Slough, racking up 321 for six declared before bowling out their hosts for just 133.
Winning the toss and opting to bat first, the champions were given early impetus by Pardoe’s 56, but it was the Lincoln brothers who did the real damage.
D. Lincoln struck a superb 117 from 118 balls, sharing a fifth-wicket stand of 150 in 146 balls with J.Lincoln, who himself raced to 102 from just 86 deliveries with seven fours and five sixes.
With the game won as a contest, Haddow, second on the division’s wicket-takers’ list with 24 scalps at an average of 12.79 heading into the round, added another four with figures of 4 for 27 as Slough were dismissed inside 52 overs, handing High Wycombe a maximum 25 points.
With Finchampstead, Oxford Downs, Banbury and High Wycombe separated by just five points at the top, and Sabin threatening to run away with the division’s batting honours, the second half of the Division One season promises no shortage of storylines.
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