The weekends much anticipated double header between Banbury and High Wycombe ended with a win for each side. Sunday’s national cup victory for Banbury, going some way towards dulling the pain of a one run defeat at London road in the league.
Saturday’s game, will be covered in full in the Banbury Guardian and Oxford Mail, but in summary: Luke Ryan bowled excellently on a flat wicket to claim 8-96 as Wycombe posted 275. Sabin, Hawkes, Cater and West all scored runs for Banbury, but with the finish line in sight at 252-5, Banbury lost 5 wickets for 22 runs to finish one short. scorecard here: http://banbury.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11384265
If the defeat was hard to take for Banbury, then they relished the opportunity to exact revenge on Wycombe the following day in the Kingfisher Beer National Club Championship.
Winning the toss and getting first use of a used pitch they posted an above par 236 form their 45 overs. Tew (49) and Sabin (28 from 21) got Banbury off to a scortcher against the new ball. In the hot dry conditions the real test was going to be against spin. Craig Haupt (46) marshalled the middle of Banbury’s innings well, setting up a platform for West (38) and Cater (49*) to pick up the tempo late on.
Ashley Blanchard and Josh Megson bowled well with the new ball for Banbury, the latter picking up the rewards he deserved during his unlucky spell on Saturday by removing the dangerous Nick Robinson and Alex Jewell. After John Stevens was brilliantly run out by Jonny Cater, the game seemed to be about to hinge on the mercurial batting talents of Jamie Benning.
The former Surrey and Leicestershire man was beginning to tick during the end of the batting power play, dishing out some ruthless punishment to Olly Wright in particular. However with Benning on 45 from just 27 balls he ran past the second delivery from off spinner Jimmy Phillips and was well stumped by Cater.
Good spells of bowling from Richard West (3-25) and Nathan Hawkes (2-31) ensured Banbury made it over the finish line on this occasion. Full Scorecard here: http://banbury.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=11559593
Banbury are away in the Regional final of the competition on the 17th of June. Unconfirmed report s suggest Barnt Green beat Knowle & Dorridge in the other semi