Magnificent Morris keeps Great Brickhill in the title hunt

A George Morris century gave Great Brickhill a straight-forward victory over Long Marston on Saturday to keep them in second in Cherwell Division 1.
The Great Brickhill slip cordonThe Great Brickhill slip cordon
The Great Brickhill slip cordon

After losing the toss, Long Marston opted to bat at the Horepond, but it appeared to be the wrong choice early on.

Openers Paul Marsh (4) and Simon Robisnon (6) were soon back in the pavilion, falling victim to Toby Brown and Asif Khan.

Christopher Slade (33) joined them with the score on 65, but Ewan George Crawley set about taking the Great Brickhill bowlers on.

His brilliant unbeaten 114 in 149 balls, alongside Alistair Bee (29 not out) guided the visitors to 225-4.

Brickhill’s response started poorly when they lost Mark Nelson for 4 and the score at 12-1.

The partnership between Morris and Hasham Ramanadanpulle though would be the one to win it for the home side. While Ramanadanpulle scored 39, Morris’ 103 not out was the mainstay of the 130-run partnership.

Morris continued to fire off runs when he was joined at the crease by big hitting Austin John, who clobbered 50 runs from just 31 balls to see Brickhill (227-2) comfortably over the line.

The result keeps Brickhill second in the table, 19 points adrift of leaders Didcot, who beat Twyford - who host Great Brickhill next week - by 85 runs on Saturday to remain on top.