Cherwell League Division 3

The first team celebrated their first home game at Bletchington this season with an ultimately comfortable win over Sandford St Martin. In glorious sunshine Mark won the toss and invited Sandford to bat. and against the opening attack of Brown and Scrivener runs from the bat were hard to come by. However, a succession of extras kept the scoreboard moving and when Matt induced opener Howe to slice to Pablo in the gully in the 11th over half of the 30 runs had come in wides. The other opener, Paterson soon followed deceived by a swinging yorker from Ross that invoked memories of the erstwhile scorer in another age.
This brought together Murray and Gough who enjoyed some early luck against Ross in particular, before putting together a stand that threatened to change the course of the game. Before they were seperated in the 40th over, when Murray lifted Ross into Tom Bilyards safe hands at deep mid wicket, they had added 112 runs. Ross then bowled Gough for 47, heralding a collapse that saw seven wickets fall for 21 runs and Sandford dismissed for 179. While Ross did most of the damage at the top of the order with 3-28, from 15 impressive overs, Scrivener and the captain demolished the fragile tail with 4 and 3 wickets respectively. While some of the fielding fell well below recent high standards, the bowlers ensured that a depleted batting line up were not chasing the wrong side of 200.
Tom Bilyard and Stevo strode to the middle and after allowing themselves an over to assess the opening attack of Risbridger and Murray, asserted themselves in their usual style. The 50 partnership was posted in the tenth over, before Tom carelessly lifted the first change Smith into mid ons hands for 26. This heralded the arrival of Pablo to the crease who patiently worked the ball into the gaps to allow Stevo the majority of the strike. What followed was brutal, as our nimble footed Aussie found the boundary almost at will. He lost Pablo in the 26th over for 31 with the partnership at 107. Four balls later it was all over, as Stevo dispatched his third six in four balls into the gardens to bring up his 100 and to win the game. The bare statistics are that it took him 74 balls and contained 8 sixes, 8 fours and was chanceless. The only time he looked in any discomfort was when he tried to ondrive his front foot in the last over. In reality, it was a awesome display of shot making that completely demoralised Sandford in the field.
With second place Long Marsdon losing, we open up a useful lead at the top of the table as we reach the last 5 games.