Walker’s ton propels Beeches into top spot

THE leadership of the Cain & Fuller CDCA Division One table has changed again with the top two sides both losing.

Top of the class are Barnsley Beeches after winning a run-fest away to bottom side Bibury.

Batting first the Barnsley openers put on 131 before skipper Vijay Sankuratri (76) fell to Ricardo Canestra (2-38)

Andrew Walker (101) continued until his excellent innings was finally ended by James Hill (3-47) and a flurry of wickets followed but extras (61) helped push the Barnsley total to a formidable 291-9 at tea.

An early wicket from veteran Stuart Liddington set the hosts back but a strong partnership between Charlie Robinson (65) and James Richardson (30) kept them interested.

A fine spell from Bobby Denney (4-43) turned the game the way of the visitors as he and Lee Self (3-51) steadily removed the middle and lower order to leave Bibury 54 runs short on 237-9.

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At Northleach, Oaksey won another high scoring match to move into second place.

They got off to a decent start through openers Ken Lane (38) and Tom Cook (20) and good contributions from Hector Whitrow (37) and Matt Denney (34) helped build the innings but the star of the show was Abrar Qureshi (76) who propelled the Oaksey score to 242-7.

Whitrow (4-40) made early inroads but an excellent partnership of 148 between skipper Tony Gardner (74) and James Oakden (73) kept the hosts in the hunt.

In the end run-rate pressure began to tell and the Minety & Northleach reply fell 26 runs short on 216-5.

South Cerney returned to winning ways with a tight victory over Longborough & Sezincote.

A good opening partnership of 54 in 10 overs between Garrick Chivers (25) and Brian Hughes (21) was broken by Ryan Theron (2-58).

The good work was continued by Dave Wheeler (41) and Chris Wearing (40*) in a partnership of 75 but a good spell from Carl Luker (2-25) helped peg the total to 187-5.

The visitors would have fancied chasing this total but had an early setback with the loss of the prolific Josh Newbould (25) to Chivers (2-35).

Fine knocks from Joe Newbould (51) and Ryan Theron (43) kept them in the game but a great spell from Chris Wearing (3-41) turned the game Cerney’s way.

Despite a late flurry from Henry Leonard (32) a couple of late wickets and a run-out from Harry Jones (2-22) brought the innings to an end 10 runs short at 177 all out with nine balls remaining.

High flying Avening & Cherington were brought down to earth by Fairford II.

Avening got off to a decent start through Dan Griffiths (24) and Bruce Walker (22) but it was downhill from that point as Sam Young (3-28) and Alex Paton (2-2) helped bowl them out for 132.

In reply Fairford did not have everything their own way as good spells from Jay Richings (9-3-102), Alistair Bullock (2-32) and Tom Redpath (2-36) kept them in check, but solid knocks from David Taylor (27), Daniel Godwin (24) and Simon Embleton-smith (21) saw the visitors home in the 35 th over.

At Oakridge, in a 10-a-side match, the hosts prevailed over Ashton Keynes.

Most of the Ashton Keynes batsmen made a contribution but none went on to a big score with A Lovatt (33) and Tom Waller (28) top-scoring in an innings of 174 all out.

For Oakridge Chris Evans (3-35) and Ben Woodcock (2-30) were the pick of the bowlers.

Despite an early loss hosts Oakridge had little trouble in knocking off the runs as Ed Bryant (62) and Jim Woodcock (54) put them in a winning position with a fine partnership.

Lovatt (2-50) bowled well but Bradley Luker (31) finished the job with seven overs to spare.