Stony chase falls a long way short
Northants Cricket League round-up
Stony Stratford's lack of consistency continues to cost them dear this summer with Saturday's 97-run defeat to Rushden seeing them slip to 10th in the table.
Stony won the toss and sent the visitors into bat on a green Ostler's Lane wicket.
Richard Lines grabbed the early wicket of Woodhouse for a duck, with the opener nicking one to keeper Mike Avery. This was to be the first of six wickets for Lines, who caused problems for most batsmen all afternoon.
The wicket was proving tricky to score on but the Rushden batsmen worked hard to establish themselves. Six of their top seven all scored over 20, although none were able to go on to post 50 or more.
Youngster George Humphries has been impressive recently and he grabbed two important wickets, including that of the powerful Harrison for 24.
Keeper Davies and Hussein both took 60 balls to get past 20 and when they fell both to Nathan Hawkes and Humphries, the visitors were stuttering.
However, Higginbotham hit a vital 44, then Griffiths (36) and Ahmed (33) pushed Rushden towards the 200 mark.
Ahmed hit two huge sixes, one clearing the pavilion and the other ending up in the neighbouring bowls club.
Lines kept plugging away though and he claimed the wickets of Higginbotham, Ahmed and Griffiths and finished with fine figures 6-65 for his efforts.
After the middle order recovery little time was left for the Rushden tail to wag and their last four wickets fell for 10 runs between them as they posted 203.
The Stony reply didn't get off to the best start as Nick Allen was bowled off just his second ball by Gaul. Aqab then removed John Lambe, leaving Stony in trouble.
Skipper Dion Ebrahim has been back to his best and he steadied the innings in typical fashion. Hawkes joined him and smashed 12 from seven balls, before he was disastrously run out by Griffiths to leave Stony reeling. And things got worse as Ebrahim was caught for 23.
Ahmed bowled Graeme Carter around his legs for four and then rattled Jarrod Pretorious' stumps on seven.
Stony were now just fighting to survive and Paul West (14) and Avery (12) tried their best to try and halt the decline, but Higginbotham grabbed both wickets and that of Andy Humphries during a decisive spell of 3-12.
Stony were eventually 107 all out and looking at their fifth defeat of the Premier Division season.
More woe for Stony 2nds
Stony 2nds came away from their game against their Rushden counterparts with a losing draw in Division Three.
Rushden batted first and built their innings around a fine knock of 98 from James Rawlings.
The home side scored 232 all out on what is traditionally a fast scoring ground. Ed Tate was the most successful of the Stony bowlers taking 4-57.
In reply Stony got off to a great start with Steve Underdown (33), Neil Allen (25) and Chris Bolton (46) seeing Stony speed along to 122 for the loss of two wickets.
But they then lost six wickets in a hurry and despite a valiant 28 not out from James Canwell, they were left hanging on for a draw with nine wickets down on 193.
The result leaves the 2nds third in the table having lost six of their games.
Stony 3rds suffered a rare loss at the hands of East Haddon 2nds in Division Seven.
They could only record 111 as they batted first, Andy Millar's 36 being the only real bright point of the innings.
East Haddon got home very comfortably with the loss of only two wickets thanks mainly to an unbeaten 42 by James Houghton.
That first defeat of the season leaves the 3rds in seventh place, but they do have games in hand on all sides about them.
Surprise defeat for the table toppers
Wicken suffered just their second defeat of the season but remain top of Division Five.
The league leaders went down to fourth placed Northampton Saints by 29 runs but stay top having won seven of their 10 games to date.
On winning the toss Wicken made the choice to field and things were looking good as openers Iqbal and Hammersly were both removed for just 18 between them. Peter Geyton caught Hammersly off the bowling of Deep Kumar before Mark Onan-Read accounted for Iqbal, caught by Ian Roberts.
Josh Turner got the visitors back on track with 56 before falling lbw to Roberts and Kumar soon caught and bowled danger man Harris for 36.
The other four visiting batsman to take to the crease all failed to hit double figures, but with 15 extras they still took the innings total on to 152-6. Roberts was the pick of the bowlers taking 2-22.
Wicken's reply never got going as Stephen Ratcliffe fell for 10 caught by Denny from the bowling of Scott. And fellow opener Ben Hallybone wasn't far behind as he was bowled by Brown for eight.
Scott (5-30) took his second wicket in the shape of Michael Ratcliffe for just two and when Roberts went to Brown (3-36) for 22 caught by Scott, Wicken were stearing their second defeat of the season in the face.
Brown took his third wicket when he found Shaun Abbott's stumps on five runs and David Pollard was the next to go for 18.
Kev Fairey (33) offered some hope but when he went to Scott there was no light at the end of the tunnel for Wicken.
Sam Newman (11) and Onan-Read (8) were the best of the rest, with the other wicket of Kumar falling for a single run as Wicken fell a long way short on all out for 123.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Milton Keynes
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
