Banbury bring an end to Datchet’s unbeaten start with 54-run victory

Datchet suffered their first league defeat of the season as they were beaten by 54 runs at Banbury on Saturday.

Joe Barrett’s side have made an impressive start to their Home Counties Division 1 campaign, winning each of their first three matches, but the runs dried up as they attempted to chase Banbury's 248-6 at the weekend.

After Lloyd Sabin was bowled by Steven Naylor for 13, the hosts’ top order cut loose, with Richard Simpson (45), Kieran Coyne (69) and Waqas Hussain (51) all scoring well.

A couple of run outs for Oliver

Clarke (24) and Joe White (6) slowed their progress, while Oliver Smithson (right) finished with Datchet's best figures of 3-32, however, their total proved to be more than defendable on that wicket.

Initially Datchet’s batsmen looked to have the upper hand, with Barrett (26), Calvin Dickinson (32) and Sean Solia (55) carryin the fight to Banbury’s bowling attack, however, from 100-2 they collapsed to 140-8 and, although Charlie Shipperley (20) resisted late on the game was lost in this spell. David Eaton finished with figures of 3-32 and prized the key wickets of Barrett, Ben Brookes (0) and Naylor (12) to really put the brakes on the visitors’ reply. They finished up on 194 all out in the 44th over. Barrett’s men will hope to bounce back against a Slough side whose form has been up and down since their return to Division 1. Having been competitive in each of their first three matches, winning two of them, Nadeem Syed’s men were convincingly beaten by Henley on Saturday.

Having been set a target of 272-8 by their visitors, Slough’s top order once again failed to fire as they were limited to 155-10 in the 46th over for a 117-run defeat. Captain Syed was Slough’s key performer with both the bat and ball, taking best figures of 3-33 and top scoring with 42 not out, however, he received little support from his teammates and admitted afterwards he's keen to see big improvements in all aspects of the team’s play. It was a good day for Henley’s Shaariq Sheikh, who took 4-38 and was unbeaten with the bat on nine.

■ Wargrave made it four wins from four with Saturday’s 63 run win over Oxford Downs in Home Counties Division 2.

Neal Robinson’s side have made an almost faultless start to the campaign and sit top of the table, already 15 points clear of closest rivals Harefield.

But they didn’t have things all their own way after winning the toss and electing to bat. Openers Sulaiman Javed (4) and Rhodri Lewis (3) both found themselves back in the clubhouse thanks to the bowling of Lawrence Brock (2-38), however, help was at hand in the form of Euan Woods (30) and Rhys Lewis (43), while Robinson contributed a useful 36 further down the order to help the hosts to 191.

At that point the outcome was very much in the balance, but an impressive bowling display from Lewis (3-41) and John Child (4-8), who swept up Oxford's tail, the visitors couldn’t get close. Tom Cosford’s 44 and Luke Maslen’s 15 kept them in contention, while Frankie Crouch was run out on 22, however, they were the only batsmen who made it to double figures.