Buckingham Town Sunday 1st X1 finished runners-up to Old Northamptonians in both the FG Watts Northamptonshire Sunday Challenge League and Cup.
The league campaign saw the final game rained off to leave Buckingham joint second with Wellingborough.The play-offs for the cup were then moved to a twenty-twenty finals day held at Stony Stratford.
In the opening game Town beat Wellingborough b
y 26 runs in a very controlled performance after having been put in. After an early loss, skipper Jonny Cater(34 from 30) and Robin Pritchard (14 from 12) put on 30 runs at better than a run a ball to give the innings impetus. This pace was maintained and managed by top scorer Graham Judd (37) with good support from Adrian Johnson (14) to finish on 124-7.
On a slow wicket this proved too many for Wellingborough who finished on 98-9. Excellent four over spells from Rob Laird (1-11), Graham Judd (1-16), Chris Coates (2-26), Jonny Cater (2-27), Callum Cater (3-20) backed up by sound fielding and good wicket-keeping from Robin Pritchard (two stumpings) kept them out of reach throughout the innings.
Wellingborough then played ONs and the signs of what was to come were evident as ONs beat Wellingborough by 134 runs! In the final game ONs proved worthy winners beating Buckingham by 110 runs.
Batting first ONs amassed 185-4 with consistent performances from all six batsmen – Willey and Mellor both scoring 36 as top scorers. Despite the high score the innings never got out of hand and Town ground fielded well – a couple of dropped catches possibly costing some runs.
Judd, Matt Dipple and Callum Cater with two wickets were the pick of the bowlers. In reply Town didn't recover from early wickets lost – some unfortunate – and despite a solid 25 from Judd were never in the race, A. Babar taking 4-15 to add to his five wickets against Wellingborough to be awarded player of the day.
A relatively successful season despite having to draw on a large number of players to meet the fixtures saw Town perform with some credit.The day was well hosted by Stony and thanks go to the league organisers and sponsors.
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