Rich pickings Emm climbs up
RICHARD COLE took five wickets as Emmbrook and Bearwood recorded their third straight win to climb into the Berkshire League Division 1 promotion spots.
After losing in week one, Phil West’s side have shown fine form ever since and picked up another win with a comprehensive 131-run success against West Reading 2s on Saturday.
Batting first, Adam Telford (56) and Ollie Williams (50) both made half centuries while West himself hit 47 as Emmbrook reached 247 before being bowled out.
And that target proved difficult for Reading to chase as Cole tore through the order, ending with figures of 5-43 while Mark Cobb and Callum Marshall also took two wickets apiece to bowl out the visitors for 116.
The victory lifts Emmbrook into second with a clash against struggling Peppard Stoke Row to come this weekend.
FARLEY HILL are still seeking their first win of the campaign after going down by six wickets to Sulhamstead and Ufton 2s at Church Lane.
Farley got off to a shocking start, sitting on 0-2 after losing both openers Ali Jalil and William NashWortham for ducks.
But they did recover to see out their innings with Johan Vorster (42no), Simon Longfield (41) and Nick Timms (35) top scoring as the hosts closed on 153-9 with no other batsman reaching double figures.
It would require something special with the ball to force a first victory and despite figures of 3-43 from Craig Jorey, Sulhamstead cruised over the line in the 30th over.
WOODLEY moved off the foot of the Premier Division table with a five-wicket win over fellow strugglers Woodcote.
After winning the toss, Woodley opted to field first but could not make a serious dent in the Woodcote order as they were set a target of 207 to win with Abdul Khaliq (2-25) and Jordan Goddard (2-56) the pick of the bowlers.
But the star of the show arrived in the second innings as Kashif Ali helped shape the Woodley reply with an unbeaten 118, supported by a 30 from Anish Pandey to seal the win after 37 overs.
BERKSHIRE COUNTY SPORTS inflicted a first defeat of the campaign on leaders Sulhamstead and Ufton.
Berks, who move up to fourth with this win, required some impressive bowling to clinch the 25 points and Sohail Jutt led the way with figures of 5-24.
Batting first, Berkshire were bowled out for 177 with Saqib Hussain (58) and Babar Butt (30) top scoring after a shocking start saw them floundering on 42-5.
And after Jutt removed opener Ryan Brown for 32 in the reply, the Sulhamstead order collapsed to 132 all out with Zaheer Ahmed and Usman Asif also collecting two wickets each.
CROWTHORNE AND CROWN WOOD moved into the top three with a convincing seven-wicket win over Welford Park.
Jeff Cluett (3-30) and Sinith Chandran (3-21) led the bowling attack to dismiss Welford for 152, a total which Crowthorne had little trouble in reaching with Muhammad Shakeel Arshad (61no) and Adam Trigwell (39) top scoring.