Cartledge helps give Crows a lift
DANIEL CARTLEDGE hit an unbeaten half century to propel Crowthorne and Crown Wood up to fourth in the Berkshire Premier Division.
Two early wickets from Jeff Cluett put the Crows in control against Peppard Stoke Row, who occupied fourth spot before the weekend.
Richard Ashton (36) and Fergus Nutt (34) offered some resistance but the wickets were shared around with Sinith Chandran, Anthony Cluett and Ravi Godbole all taking two each as Peppard closed on 166-9.
Crowthorne lost Julian O’Loughlin (5) early, but made light work of the chase to win in the 41st over.
Richard Barron contributed 45 while unbeaten knocks from Anthony Cluett (43) and Cartledge (66), who hit 13 boundaries, saw the victory over the line with eight wickets in hand.
BERKSHIRE COUNTY SPORTS preserved their fine start to the campaign with a fifth win in eight, seeing off Ruislip Victoria by 40 runs to stay second in the league.
It was far from a perfect batting display from Berks as they were bowled out for 193 with Waqas Ashraf (60) and Salman Hamidi (42) top scoring.
But the bowlers stepped up to the mark against the league’s bottom placed side, dismissing them for 153 to win by 40 runs as Saqib Hussain posted figures of 5-39, while Mohammad Farooq and Sohail Abbas took two wickets apiece.
WOODLEY have replaced Ruislip at the foot of the standings after a 119-run thrashing by leaders Sulhamstead and Ufton.
Kashif Ali (2-48) and Jagvinder Grewal (2-69) were the pick of the bowlers as Sulhamstead closed on 212-9.
And that total looked like being enough from the off with no Woodley men able to break beyond the 20s with Abdul Khaliq (23) the pick of the bunch as the strugglers were skittled for 93.
Former Division 1 leaders EMMBROOK AND BEARWOOD slipped all the way down to fourth after a one-wicket defeat at Goring on Thames.
It was the batting that let Phil West’s side down as they were bowled out for just 106, well short of their recent totals.
The Bears struggled throughout with Sean Woodward (31) the only man to at least give the visitors half a chance.
And they nearly grabbed a sensational victory. Despite chasing just 107, Goring made heavy weather of the task with Ollie Williams (214), Richard Cole (4-26) and Callum Marshall (2-27) all enjoying good days with the ball.
But they scrambled home after 33 overs to send Emmbrook tumbling down the table.
FARLEY HILL finally registered their first win of the campaign, defeating fellow strugglers West Reading 2s by 91 runs.
The pair occupy the two relegation spots in the division, but Farley broke their duck after a fine all-round display.
Solid knocks from Ross Ditchburn (25), Nick Timms (35), Johan Vorster (30), Thomas Hale (43) and Sajjad Abbasi (39) helped Farley post of target of 221 to win.
And the impressive performances transferred to the bowlers with Michael Sheridan (412), Andy Marr (2-21) and Hale (2-34) helping to dismiss Reading for 129.