This week “Baloo the Jugster” returned home where we hosted Aston Rowant. Having won the toss, our visitors' captain Joshua Smith decided to take to the field offering us the first use of the pitch.

Aston Rowant’s own veteran Wesley Morrick was fist to strike, getting Andy Dixon caught for 9 in the 5th over with the score on 13. Michael Payne and AJ Woodland added 35 before the former was bowled by Morrick for 13 in the 15th over and was followed two deliveries later by Liam Gough.

Allrounder David Brent promoted to number five was next to join Woodland and steady the ship with a partnership of 39 before Woodland was Caught & Bowled by Dominic Whatman for a valuable 34. The innings was now in the balance as captain Shelvin Gumbs walked to the crease. This was to be the best partnership of our innings, with the pair adding 68 before Gumbs was caught for a well made 36 off 31 balls.

Brent once again worked well with the lower order and in particular with wicket-keeper Jeremy O’Neill for a 41 run partnership to take the score to 220, with Brent finally dismissed for 88 from 89 balls.

The familiar opening pairs of Brent and Simon Stanway bowled a tidy line & length creating early pressure for the opposition as they took a wicket each in our visitors pursuit of 221.

The change of bowlers to Andy Harris and Michael Payne kept a tight grip on the scoring, creating sustained pressure with an economy rate of 2.3 and 2.4 respectively. As the bowling changes unfolded so did Aston Rowant wickets, with left arm spinner Rory Criddle also bowling extremely well to pick up 4 wickets as our visitors folded and were bowled out for 168. It was an excellent allround display and probably our best in the field by this season.

With three games remaining, we are in fourth place, 34 points behind leaders Slough. Next weekend we make our last trip up the M40 as we travel to Oxford.

SECONDS, THIRDS & FOURTHS

What a difference a week makes for our Second Team. After being dismissed for 98 last Saturday, we romped to 309-4 in their 45 overs to beat Chiswick & Whitton by 175 runs and take their second place in the table.

A solid foundation to the innings was laid by Sheridon Gumbs and Matt Grinham as they put on 66 for the first wicket before Grinham was out LBW in the seventeenth over for 31. Gumbs was then joined by Jack Rodnight and they consolidated the good start with a partnership of 80 in exactly 16 overs before Gumbs also departed LBW for 59.

Tom Calder then came to the wicket and this is where the fireworks started. He hit his fifth ball for six and never looked back as he completed his half century in just 23 balls and was finally out for 63 from 27 balls having found the boundary nine times, seven of them for a maximum. At the other end, Rodnight who had completed his fifty from 65 balls started to accelerate. He played an array of shots, some traditional, but also the reverse sweep and the ramp shot and anything sort was bludgeoned away to the boundary. His second fifty came off 29 balls and his final 25 off 8 balls.

Together Rodnight and Calder put on 152 for the third wicket in eleven and a half overs and a staggering 148 were scored from the last nine overs. Both were out in the final over as they saw the Second Team to 300 for the first time in many a year.

The Chiswick & Whitton innings started perfectly for the Second Team as the very first ball from Jake Seagrave was edged by captain Harpreet Bhatia onto his pads and into the gloves of Stephen Dutch playing his first game back after breaking his finger. This was the first of five wickets for Seagrave who was well supported in the field by Calder who took four catches.

Paul Orton chipped in with three wickets as wickets continued to fall and at 90 for 9 a win by 200 runs looked possible. There was a bit of a revival as Chiswick put on 44 for the last two wickets but Rodnight had success with ball too as he took the ninth wicket and Toby Wastling wrapped things up with the tenth.

Mark Bater's Third Team made if five wins from six after winning a bad tempered encounter at home against Chiswick & Whitton. Bater once again won the toss and asked the visitors to bat on overcast Hertfordshire afternoon.

The visitors got off to a fast start with our opening bowlers Ed Pike and Toby Seagrave not being rewarded for decent opening spells with the ball. Pike eventually struck when he clean bowled the big hitting Amrit Malhotra for 33.

Chiswick & Whitton batted patiently scoring at a steady rate without ever putting our Third Team under immense pressure. Opening batsman Sajid Suleman who stayed at the crease by the skin of his teeth was eventually dismissed by returning leg spinner Greg Lem who conned Suleman into hitting the ball down Josh Camm's throat at mid off.

With overs running out, our visitors looked to up the runrate. The experienced pair of Dan Boniface and allrounder Chris Curry were brought on to close out the innings. Curry, who celebrated his birthday on Thursday tied down Chiswick and finished with figures of 4-38 from eight overs. Three of his wickets were slower balls than were struck out to deep square leg and all three were caught by Boniface as our visitors finished on 238-6.

Our opening pair of Josh Camm (15) and Robbie Grout (18) started positively against an erratic bowling attack finding the boundary on a regular basis and running well between the wickets. It was surprising when both were dismissed in quick succession with their wickets bringing Sherisa Gumbs and Curry to the crease. The pair counter attacked with Curry in particular looking in excellent touch. Gumbs took a little while to get going, but once she did, the legside boundary was peppered with ease.

Gumbs was dismissed for excellent 64, her second half century of the season. She was replaced by Australian allrounder Charlie Greer who joined Curry in looking to finish the innings quickly. With 17 runs required for victory, Curry was dismissed for a brilliant 70, his highest score of the season.

Greer and wicket-keeper James Wheeler followed Curry back to the pavilion as it was left to captain Bater and Ed Pike to see our Third Team past 238 with five overs remaining.

Andy Grout's Fourth Team were beaten by Farnham Common but they remain second in the table with three games to go. Our hosts scored 288-7 off their 40 overs with Rashid Mahmood, Gemma Marriott and Ben Bezani picking up two wickets each.

The total proved too many for the Fourth Team as we finished 199-9 off 40 overs. Nick Wale (43), Thomas Powell-Williams (40) and Ben Bezani (49*) top scored for the Fours.

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