Datchet open up
Datchet CC: Barrett's men edge clear of their rivals jostling for
While captain Joe Barrett wouldn’t say that Datchet are starting to pull away from their rivals, he was happy to see them open a 14 point lead over second placed Aston Rowant at the top of Home Counties League Division 1 at the weekend.
Datchet have been the league’s most consistent side this summer, winning six of their eight matches to date and losing just twice, to seventh-placed Finchampstead and eighth-placed Banbury.
However, while Saturday’s 72-run success over bottom of the table Buckingham Town strengthened their hold on first place, Barrett knows there’s a lot of quality teams jostling for position beneath them, while the gap to sixth-placed Slough is only 37 points.
Division 1 this season is competitive and congested and, despite playing well so far this season, Datchet are far from assured of their place at the top with just over half of the matches still to play.
However, should they get the better of Henley and Wokingham in the coming weeks, they’ll maybe start believing they can get their hands on the trophy this summer.
On Saturday the performance of bowler Sam Harris (4-17) turned the game in their favour.
Having posted a challenging total of 218 on a difficult wicket, Buckingham were going along quite nicely on 44 for the loss of no wickets before Harris’ breath-taking spell put the advantage firmly back in the visitors’ court.
Barrett, who couldn’t be at the game, said: “I wouldn’t quite say that we're pulling away, I think it’s 14 points now as opposed to four.
“Which is obviously progress. It’s good to have a win, I wasn’t playing at the weekend because I was at a wedding. I was frantically refreshing ‘playcricket’ for the whole day.
“It was much more nerve-wracking than playing in the game, but thankfully we got the job done.
“Teams at the bottom can be hard to beat in the longer format, especially if they’ve got one eye on a draw batting second, but it was
good to get the job done and there were a few draws around on Saturday which also helped us.
Datchet played creditably well with the bat, with Steven Naylor top scoring with 66 and sharing a useful stand with Bobby Sher (30) further down the order, however, it was the bowling attack who really stepped up to the plate, with Harris (4-17) well supported by Naylor, Sean Solia and Sher who each took two wickets to limit Buckingham to 146 in the 43rd over.
“We batted first and got a decent score for that wicket, but they got off to a flier and were 50-0 off six or something like that,” he said. “But then Sam Harris came in with a ridiculous spell of bowling. I think at one stage he was four overs, one run for four wickets.
“That changed the game, and they were really trying to block out for a draw from there. We had to try and prize them out a little bit, but Sammy Harris turned it around for us.
“In this league everyone can beat everyone. It looks like the bottom two clubs have a bit of work on their hands to get back into it. But everyone who is not in that bottom two has the potential to cause upsets or win games.
“We've lost to Finchampstead and Banbury who are lower down. We’ve got a couple of big games against Henley and Wokingham. Where we sit after that will be a pretty good indicator as they’re both strong sides.”
Barrett admits a win over Henley on Saturday would be a major confidence boost for his players.
“Absolutely, so far this year when we’ve played sides at the top we've delivered,” he said. “Against High Wycombe earlier in the season and Aston Rowant a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, we can do that again.
“Henley are always a bit difficult, and we haven’t had a huge amount of success against them in recent years so it would be nice to get a win there.”