Banbury Under 11’s retained the Oxfordshire cup by beating a well drilled and competitive Oxford Downs side at Stonesfield yesterday.
After winning the toss Banbury decided to bat on what turned out to be a belter of a wicket with pace and bounce. We were given a solid start by Will Stanley and Tom Bradbeer posting 223 in their four over’s with the loss of one wicket, then the next two pairs of Ross Allen, Alex Bury then Jack Briggs and Andrew Pallet took the score to 236 for the loss of three wickets, then the last pairing of skipper Will Briggs and Daniel "Nasher" Nash set about the Downs attack with "Nasher" running like his life depended on it and Briggs hitting the ball to all parts of the field and also the field next door! When the innings closed they had taken the total to a massive 285 without losing a wicket adding 49 in 4 over’s with Briggs hitting seven fours in his score of 40 off 19 balls.
Having taken the initiative Banbury kept the foot down by taking three wickets in the first pair then steadily chipped away through out the innings which meant Downs never gained any momentum and ended up on 230 having lost 10 wickets. The pick of the bowlers was Will Stanley with his nagging accuracy taking 3 for 10 in his 3 over’s, Alex Bury picked up 2 for 12 with Will and Jack Briggs picking up a wicket each, the remaining three wickets being run outs. On the whole the Banbury ground fielding was not up to the usually high standard but mention must be made of an astonishing catch by 9 year old Jack Briggs running backwards at cover then diving to grasp the ball inches from the ground.
Well done to all the lads and lass’s that have represented the Under 11’s in what has been a difficult stop start season, it was fitting that we came away with some silverware.
Lastly thanks to Stonesfield for providing a cracking cricket wicket and also Martin the Oxfordshire U11 coach for running around at the last minute collecting the medals.