Tring Top Table

Photo is of not out batsmen Steve Dutch and Jake Seagrave who's ninth wicket partnership took our first team to victory at Horspath.

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.