Buckingham Town Cricket Club - May 13th 2004

Buckingham Under 16s vs Milton Keynes Park

Park, choosing to bat first, were bowled out for 54, by a full strength team.

Town's openers, Shiv Talsania (24*) and Johnny Cater (21*) soon had the game finished reaching their target within 8 overs.

Rupert O'Neill (3-6) and Luke Bridges (2-12) were the pick of the bowlers for Town.

Debutant, Chris Hostler (1-12) also bowled well opening the bowling.

Buckingham Under 13s vs Olney

Buckingham Town under 13s made a winning start to the season with a comprehensive 114 run victory in first round of the Bucks cup against Olney, played on the picturesque ground at Preston Bissett whose club kindly made it available.

Batting first, Town's batsmen got into their stride immediately and reached 186 for 3 in 20 overs, thanks to three good partnerships. Openers Toby O'Neill and Nick Wilkes put on 58 before both were out for 29 (trying to end on a six before retiring!). Stuart Powell and Dilshan Direkze put on 60 before both retired on 33. Then Harsh Jethra (11) and Tom Jones (24) kept up the momentum to the end of the innings with an unbroken stand of 40. This big total, which included 25 fours and two sixes (O'Neill and Direkze), didn't result from slogging but from good stroke play all around the wicket.

Town's bowlers then got to work and dismissed Olney for 72. Man of the match Josh Goodey took 4-16, including three wickets in four balls, while the rest were polished off by Alex Guntert, Jack Robbins, Jack Thompson and Dryden Williams.

Jones had an excellent debut behind the stumps and collected the fielding award, assisting in a smart run out, taking a catch and conceding no byes. Thompson also had a good debut, fielding impressively, getting the run out, and taking two wickets.

Other highlights were O'Neill's diving left handed slip catch and Direkze's well organised captaincy, which involved everyone in an excellent all round team performance.

Notes to the squad The main scope for improvement in a good all-round performance was that some of our bowling was a bit short. The wickets generally came when the ball was pitched up, to within a metre or so of the batsmen's toes.

Thanks to Steve Jones for scoring and Kim Goodey for collecting the ground fees.