Emmbrook miss out on top spot after poor batting

EMMBROOK AND BEARWOOD were forced to settle for second place in Division One after a poor batting display in their title decider against Bradfield.

Knowing victory would seal top spot, the Bears batted first but lost opener Ollie Williams for a duck.

But fellow opener Sanjeev Jain, who suffered an horrific facial injury earlier this campaign, tried to shape the innings with his 59, only for wickets to continue tumbling around him.

Jack Narraway’s unbeaten 23 was the closest anybody came to Jain as six men in total fell for single figures, leaving Emmbrook all out for 147.

The visitors made the perfect start in reply with Richard Cole taking the first of his three wickets to remove opener Paul Hale for nought, but Bradfield made light work of the chase to win by five wickets after 40 overs.

Despite missing out on the title, Emmbrook do clinch their return to the Premier Division

They will be taking the place of

WOODLEY, who rounded off their forgettable campaign with a sevenwicket loss to Ruislip Victoria.

Anish Pandey’s 61 was a rare highlight as Ruislip chased down 148 to win. BERKSHIRE COUNTY SPORTS

were thrashed by 118 runs against Peppard Stoke Row, despite a fine individual display from Saqib Hussain, scoring 41 and taking four wickets.

CROWTHORNE AND CROWN WOOD finish fifth after holding champions Sulhamstead and Ufton to a draw. Muhammad Shakeel Arshad top scored for the Crows with 73 as they closed on 228-6 before Sulhamstead made it to 224-6 before their overs ran out. WALTHAM ST LAWRENCE are Division 2 champions after a fine nine-wicket win over EMMBROOK AND BEARWOOD 2s.

Waltham had a fine day in the field, tearing through Emmbrook to bowl them out for just 52 with Andy Malliff (5-23) and Siva Kumar (5-28) doing the job themselves.

SHINFIELD are promoted in second-place following a similarly emphatic nine-wicket victory at Hawley.

Hassan Safdar led the bowling with figures of 3-11 to dismiss Hawley for 56, a target never in threat of being enough to win.

In third-place is EARLEY, who rounded off their campaign with a winning draw against Stratfield Turgis/Hartley Wespall.

Gary Shacklady was the clear leading batsman with a score of 47 as Earley struggled to 130 all out.

But Stratfield also had a tough day with the bat, scrambling to 128-9 as Steven Mapes (6-21) produced a stand-out bowling display.

Elsewhere, unbeaten knocks from Robin Thompson (49) and Stuart Barrable (58) earned TWYFORD AND RUSCOMBE a nine-wicket victory over

WOODLEY 2s while CROWTHORNE AND CROWN WOOD 2s edged past Warfield by 17 runs, with Tom Nash scoring a half century.

In Division 3, KNOWL HILL finish in third after a winning draw over Peppard Stoke Row 3s.

Mohammad Arshad (87) and Matt Crawcour (50) top scored as Knowl set a target of 261 to win and Peppard made it to 234-8 off their 45 overs.

Nagaraja Bommanapalli’s 76 came in vain as CROWTHORNE AND CROWN WOOD 3s were beaten by two wickets against Sulhamstead and Ufton 3s in Division 4.

BINFIELD 3s were also beaten, losing by six wickets despite an unbeaten knock of 67 from

Colin Canty while WALTHAM ST

LAWRENCE 2s suffered a losing draw to West Reading 4s with Kiran Alluri’s 77 the top score for Waltham.