Whilst many were travelling to Windsor or glued to their television for some Royal History, our First Team had its own royal engagement away at Horspath. On this warm day, our hosts won the toss and there was no surprise when their captain Will Eason decided to bat on what looked like a dry wicket given the recent weather.

David Brent opened the bowling and was quick to make an impact. It did not take long before he broke the opening partnership with Coleman caught by Andy Harris in the 2nd over.

Brent backed up by veteran Simon Stanway continued to bowl a decent line and length as Horspath found it challenging to get away in the first power-play stage of the innings.

Horspath were quickly reduced to 32-4 with Brent picking up a further two wickets and Stanway picking up his first in the tenth over. Our bowling was always threatening and another couple of wickets reduced our hosts to 77-6 after 21 overs.

Resuming after the drinks break, Horspath realised they had to bat deep into the overs and by now were not in a position to take any risks. Cosford and Green batted well with much resistance, building a partnership of 96 before Stanway removed the latter with two overs remaining as our hosts finished their 50 overs on 183-7. It was a great display allround with the ball and also a courageous efforts behind the stumps for Steve Dutch on a tricky wicket.

After a lovely lunch, our opening batsmen AJ Woodland and Liam Gough set about the chase with both looking very comfortable on what was a challenging pitch to bat on.

Gough was first to go, caught at midwicket for eight with our score on 38 in the 9th over., Andy Dixon, promoted to number three due to a back injury to Charlie Macdonell was next to go for but not before executing an excellent square cut to the boundary with us falling to 43-2 after 11 overs. Woodland continued to execute some exquisite straight drives, putting on 19 with Michael Payne before he departed on 30.

Captain Shelvin Gumbs joined Payne in what was hoped to be the main partnership of the innings, but he was soon back in the pavilion after hitting a maximum over the bowler's head, with our score now 71-4.

In came Brent who took to the Horspath spinners, hitting a quick 32 off 35 balls. Payne was then joined by Harris and when he was back in the pavilion after two deliveries, the committed Macdonell joined Payne with immense pain for a brief partnership of 15.

At 142-7, the target of 184 looked a long way away. In stepped Dutch and between him and Payne they put on a much need partnership of 28 before Payne was dismissed on 52 with 14 runs still needed for victory. Dutch now joined by Jake Seagrave and the pair too the score to 178 at the end of the penultimate over. With everyone at the edge of their seats and the many following via the live YouTube feed, Seagrave, struck the 2nd and fourth balls of the final over for boundaries to give us another nail biting victory.

TWOS, THREE'S & FOURS

The Second Team suffered a seven wicket defeat at the hands of Kew at home last Saturday. Batting first, we slumped to 68-6 before a revival as Rory Wood and Charlie Greer put on 66 for the seventh wicket with Greer bringing up the fifty partnership with a six over a straight midwicket. They were dismissed in consecutive overs but there was still time for a useful 24 from Paul Orton batting at number ten to see the total to 184.

Our bowling was not at it's best and with a number of dropped catches Kew brought up victory after 32 overs, with captain Andrew Lewin batting through for 69 not out.

A trip to Slough saw a weakened Third Team working hard to compete and chase 290. Young Tom Powell-Williams first ball in league cricket brought a wicket as he and Jacob Hendin showed real potential for the future. Our hosts innings was a mixture of good hitting and poor bowling as we struggled to contain the runs with them eventually being bowled out for for 289.

Our reply was held together by a very good 49 from opener Josh Camm and an excellent debut 33 by Powell-Williams. With the run rate rising Angus Cumming (53) and Stuart Quilliam (75) built a partnership to give us a glimmer of a chance for victory. Unfortunately once Cumming was stumped, the chase proved too great as our innings finished 246-7. Hopefully we can bounce back with a victory against Eastcote next weekend.

The Fourth Team made it successive home wins with an impressive victory over Hayes. Captain Andy Grout won the toss for a third successive weekend. Once more our bowling was key as we bowled out our visitors for 88 with Tristan Murrell picking up four wickets.

We were quickly reduced to 19-2 after losing John Graham and Steve Wale in quick succession. Any hope that our hosts had of victory were quickly dashed with a match winning partnership between Dick Highton and Nick Wale who saw us home to an eight wicket victory.

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