The 4ths hosted Dinton 3rd’s at Horton View on Saturday and came away with a strong 7 wicket victory.
Banbury won the toss and elected to field first. Things didn’t get off to a great start for Banbury as Mark Wright suffered a side strain in his 2nd over and was unable to bowl for the rest of the match. This together with the initial onslaught from the Dinton batsmen had Banbury well and truly on the back foot. Although Banbury achieved to quick wickets to after this, a very good partnership between George Tomlin (60) and Grant Farrow (63) took Dinton to 168-3 off 25 overs and a large total in the making. However, Banbury managed to peg things back a bit with some tight bowling and improved fielding, after which the wickets started to fall regularly. As a result, Dinton only managed to score 55 runs off the last 20 overs to finish on 223-9. The best bowlers for Banbury were Andy Jones with 6-37 (off 12.3 overs). Dan Bartlett, Mark Pallett and James Mitchelmore picked up a wicket each and Sam Manning finished with 0-21 off 6 very good overs for the 14 year old. Kieran Scott finished with 3 catches.
With Banbury’s turn to bat, Ian Thomas in his first league outing for Banbury, showed the way be sending the 1st ball of the innings to the boundary. However, Kieran Scott (14) and Thommo (18) were soon out an Banbury were in some early trouble at 40-2 after 10 overs. A steadying partnership of 47 between Andrew Pallett (10) and Richard Lambden, put Banbury on the right tracked, with Richard Lambden starting to look more comfortable now. The run rate still at around 5 runs an over, Richard was joined by James Mitchelmore and the scoring rate soon increased as both batsmen found the boundary regularly with the lightning fast outfield. Mitch at one point overtook Richard having given him a 33 run start, and almost ran him out in the process. In the end, Richard Lambden, in a welcome return to form, finished 80 not out, and Mitch finished on 71 note out as the pair put on 137 to get Banbury home in the 38th over and a comfortable 7 wicket victory in the end.
The win takes Banbury to 2nd in the Division 8 table at the half-way stage of season, only 10 points behind the leaders, Great Tew 3rds.