Chesham CC w/e 1st July
After last week’s free scoring the somewhat mercurial Chesham 1st X1 were found wanting against Buckingham at the Meadow. Losing their previously consistent high scoring opener Matt Rance in the first over and lacking Luke Webb on duty at Henley Regatta , Chesham continued to struggle for runs against the skilful bowling of Aussie seamer Kadan Brad-Ball and lost wickets at regular intervals. Disciplined knocks by skipper Jason Rance (35) and Robin Pritchard (32) were not sufficient to stem the collapse with the tail end for once contributing little to increase the all out total of 127 off 38 .1 overs, Brad- Ball bowling unchanged to take 6 for 44. Hopes were raised when both Buckingham openers fell cheaply, including Darren Gough’s new Bucks player son Liam, but this proved to be a false dawn as first Ros Large (53) and then Jonny Cater (44*) rode their luck with some big hits and the aid a couple of dropped catches to take the visitors home for the loss of 5 wickets in the 34th over. With the Chesham attack missing seamer Jack Mciver and spinner Pip France bowling several overs of seam up all the bowlers struggled and no one took more than a single wicket.
The 2ndX1 suffered agonising defeat by just 2 runs against Hayes 1st X1. With an under strength bowling attack Chesham owed much to young Nouman Aslam who took 6 for 34 and was instrumental in limiting Hayes to a total of 151 . Brendan O’Donovan (39) led Chesham’s reply and although wickets fell regularly, at 132 for8 Chesham looked likely winners. Disappointingly, the well set Nouman then lost the strike and the last wicket fell when, after what seemed an eternity, the umpire decided that Chesham’s last man was LBW.
The 3rd X1 had far the better of a draw against OMT 2nds. In Chesham’s total of 249 for 5 dec Mo Asuaf starred with 104, ably assisted by Luke Dawson (46) and Waqar Butt (38). OMT made no attempt to go for the runs and ended at 121 fo6. Humza Alam bowled well to take 4 for 25. A very unsatisfactory game and result which probably reinforces the argument for straight win or lose games.
The 4TH X1 were able to celebrate their first win of the season when defeating Ruislip 2nds by 6 wickets. Boosted by the presence of Peter Clifford who was unable to travel away, Chesham bowlers struggled but still limited the visitors to 205 for 4. In reply Chesham cruised home with Clifford top scoring with 78 and Ben Woodward 61.
Cheaham Women gained an outstanding win against Abbots Langley by a massive 108 runs. runs. Charlotte Villiers-Smith gave an outstanding all round display, first hitting an undefeated 73 and then taking 3 for 11. She was ably backed up by Emily Gould (49*) with the bat for Chesham to total 167 for and then by Laura Gurney (2 for7) and Karen Mintern (2 for 2) to dismiss Abbots Langley for only 59.