Bird does his best but Falkland fall short
FALKLAND suffered a six-wicket defeat to Stoke Green in Division 1 of the Thames Valley Cricket League.
Falkland were asked to bat first and James Bird and Craig Williams got them off to a very strong start.
Bird clocked up 65 before being bowled, while Williams added 14, but it was an inconsistent batting display from the home side.
Hector Chambers (13) and Tom Ettridge (34) added healthy scores, while Rowan Hathaway remained unbeaten with 10 as Falkland finished on 159-9.
Despite Falkland’s best efforts, with Charlie Dale taking two wickets, Stoke Green lost just four wickets as they eased in at 161.
Newbury’s match against Theale & Tilehurst in Division 4A was abandoned halfway through because of rain.
Newbury scored 150 runs before being dismissed, with a number of batsmen adding some valuable scores.
Vikas Dange (32), Rohit Sengupta (33), Jagjit Singh (28) and Surya Sastry (21) all performed well to set Theale a challenging score.
They made a decent response, with Tom White (19no) and Alec Davidson-Soler (28) batting well, but the game was washed out.
Purley’s game against Maidenhead & Bray 2nd and Falkland 2nd clash with Bagshot 2nd both ended the same way.
A number of games across the divisions were also abandoned, but Purley-on-Thames 2nd suffered a three-wicket defeat to Slough 4th.
Robert Clarke scored an unbeaten 75, while Anwar Subhani added 26 as Purley finished on 175-7.
However, more consistent batting from Slough saw them take the win.
In Division 6B, Falkland 3rd lost to Theale & Tilehurst 2nd by 78 runs, with Theale’s Kieran Coleman hitting an incredible 151 not out as they declared on 262-5.
Falkland’s James Bloodworth (45), Ben Thomas (55) and Peter Randall (21) all played their part, but they failed to reach the target.
In Division 7A, Bradfield 2nd lost to Royal Ascot 3rd by 51 runs, while Newbury 2nd lost to Binfield 3rd by 37 runs.
In Division 10, Sulhamstead & Ufton 3rd beat Newbury 3rd by three wickets.