CHRIS Sandbach turned in a man-of-the match display with 60 and remarkable figures of 4-7 as Oxford Downs conquered Banbury 2nd by 118 runs.
Downs elected to bat first, and the decision was vindicated thanks to the efforts of Sandbach and Wes Bartlett, who scored 73 in their 249-7.
Paul Hill took 4-91 for Banbury, who were soon in trouble against Sandbach, Luke List (3-13) and South African import Goolam Bhayat (3-43) as they fell to 131 all out.
Banbury 2nd 12pts, Oxford Downs 30 Glynn Lumb’s patient 102 was the backbone of Challow & Childrey’s 172 all out after they had chosen to bat at home to Buckingham Town.
Off-spinner James Gear kept the scoring down with a tidy 15-over spell which yielded 4-49.
Town’s overseas player Jimal Khan then matched Lumb’s score and was there at the end as the visitors won by five wickets in the 37th over to take over at the top.
Challow 12, Buckingham Town 30 Buckingham leapfrog Aston Rowant and Banbury Twenty, who fought out a draw.
Dave Clark’s 66 was the highlight of Twenty’s 227-8, which also featured 39 from John Wright and a useful spell of 3-61 from Tim Foster.
Rowant’s Australian batsman Andrew Hicks maintained his fine form with 47, but once he was out, the home side’s threat had gone and they fell well short on 169-7.
Aston Rowant 15, Banbury Twenty 17 A magnificent all-round performance by Milton Keynes Park’s James Sprittles was too much for Shipton-under-Wychwood.
Sprittles dominated Park’s innings, scoring 71 in their 168 all out, then took 5-22 from 11 overs as Shipton crashed to 111 all out inside 43 overs.
Rob Pike had taken 5-58 for Shipton from his 16 overs, while Paul Hemming top-scored in their reply with 35.
Milton Keynes Park 30, Shipton-under-Wychwood 14 John Williams failed to score from his first 57 deliveries, but his hard work paid off as he hit 33 from the next 46 balls to guide Oxford 2nd to an eight-wicket win over Dinton.
Dinton had elected to bat and crawled to 143-8 as they struggled to get Dharhendra Patel (3-26) away.
Oxford also found scoring difficult, before Williams eventually got going and victory was secured with 21 balls to spare.
Oxford 2nd 30, Dinton 8