Fourth Place Finish For Seconds

But the main aim of the game was achieved and that was to gain the one point needed for mathematical safety. There was a good deal of playing and missing early on by the Amersham openers and it only looked like a matter of time before there would be an edge. And sure enough it came in the seventh over when Chris Owen was caught behind by James Hawkes off Nick Grant’s bowling.

Grant capped a good opening spell to take two more early wickets and reduce Amersham to 36-3 and make him top wicket-taker for the season. But that there was no more success for some time as Amersham piled on the runs. The next wicket fell at 96, but the next at 309 as Dan Colquhoun punished the Second Team bowling with a brutal 179 from 121 balls.

Toby Wastling chopped and changed the bowling but with little success as the runs still flowed. Eventually he turned to Ali Partner whose economy was no better but he did take three wickets in the final over, including that of Colquhoun, to bring up a tally of five bowling points.

The 324 needed for victory was unlikely, so after a quick check of the League table, the aim was to score 175 and reach the five batting points needed to finish the season ahead of Amersham. In the end the maximum six points were achieved mainly thanks to a fine innings of 96 from Sanjoy Bassi and thanks to some very handsome shots he found the boundary eleven times.

It seemed that the points tally would secure third place until the news of Kidmore End’s improbable victory against Eversley arrived which saw them sneak ahead of the 2s. But following promotion last season, a fourth place is very creditable.