Great Brickhill down neighbours Leighton Buzzard

Centuries on both sides of the card from Brickhill opener George Morris and then from Leighton skipper Phil Whatmore saw more than 550 runs scored as both sides sought to get their Cherwell League Division 1 campaign back on track.

Things got off to a great start for Leighton. Having won the toss and put the hosts in to bat, Lawrence Armstrong was back in the pavilion in the first over as Jack Kempster trapped him LBW for 0.

Opening bat Morris and home captain Graeme Carter (28) then fashioned a 73 run partnership before the latter was bowled by Francis.

Doug Aris then joined Morris and the run rate increased with a partnership worth 132 runs in 23 overs. Both batsmen benefitted from dropped catches.

At 208-2 the momentum was with Brickhill as Town struggled for wickets .

Kempster rejoined Leighton’s attack and bowled Aris (60) and immediately followed this up by bowling Symmonds (0). Arran Aris (15) was another Kempster victim.

Mahendran ended on 15 no but the mainstay of the Brickhill innings was opener Morris who batted throughout the innings and ended on 118 not out, with 8 fours and 5 sixes.

Kempster took 4-71 with Francis taking 1-51. The other Leighton bowlers will be disappointed with their bowling figures except for Lee Selfe who conceded just 21 runs from his 10 overs.

Brickhill’s final score was 283-5.

Leighton made a slow start. Antony Francis (2) was caught at mid off, Tom Callaghan (7)) edged to keeper Doug Aris and Scott Clarke (0) was bowled.

It meant Leighton were struggling on 40-3 after 14 overs.

Visiting captain Whatmore was joined by Dan Scott(11) and 48 runs were added to the total before the latter was caught off the bowling of George Humphries.

At the halfway stage Leighton had reached 84-4, still some 200 runs short of their target with 25 overs left.

Whatmore then began a major assault on the home bowling attack with a series of boundaries. He reached his half century off 46 balls with his century coming up from 69 deliveries. .

Dave Roberts too was giving his captain solid support as the visiting score mounted rapidly.

With the score on 220 and the partnership worth 136 from 16 overs Whatmore went for another big hit but was caught by Carter on the boundary edge for 150 runs. This included 20 fours and 7 sixes and is the highest individual score by a Leighton 1st team batsman for many years.

Town then needed 64 runs from the remaining 10 overs.

Roberts (38) top edged a sweep to give Ahad Khan his first wicket. Khan would go on to cause havoc.

Adam Culley (15) was stumped as he looked for runs. Ben Smith (4) was caught and bowled. Lee Selfe(5) was caught and Jack Kempster (21) was caught.

All of these wickets fell to Khan as Leighton were bowled out for 277 with just four balls of the match remaining .

For Brickhill, Khan took 5-52, Blackwell 1-23, Symmonds 2-48, Humphries 1-51 and Iqbal 1-54.

Leighton get just seven points and slip down the order to eighth, whilst Brickhill get 25, lifting them up to fourth in the table.

Great Brickhill 2nds lost out on top spot in Division 3 after drawing with Didcot .

James Wagg took 5-60 for Brickhill as Didcot scored 290-8.

In reply, Adam Boad top scored with 61, but his batting partners weren’t quite as up to scratch as Brickhill came in on 145-7.

The result sees them drop to second, giving top spot to Bledlow Village.