Banbury come up short against the champions

Banbury lost their first Home Counties Premier Cricket League game of the season against Henley.
Banbury's Graham Beer sends down a delivery to Henley's Matt Rowe at White Post Road. Photo: Jake McNultyBanbury's Graham Beer sends down a delivery to Henley's Matt Rowe at White Post Road. Photo: Jake McNulty
Banbury's Graham Beer sends down a delivery to Henley's Matt Rowe at White Post Road. Photo: Jake McNulty

The champions prevailed by 62 runs in Saturday’s division one fixture at White Post Road where Banbury failed to match their efforts with the ball with the bat. Having restricted Henley to 222-9, Banbury’s top order failed again and, with wickets falling at regular intervals, Lloyd Sabin’s side were never seriously going to get near the target.

Having won the toss, Henley skipper Michael Roberts elected to bat and saw his side score well throughout their innings. Matt Rowe and Roberts put on 58 runs for the first wicket.

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Rowe was caught by Sabin off Ollie Wright for 23, Tom Scriven soon followed but Roberts and Richard Morris put on 67 runs for the third wicket when the Henley skipper was caught by George Tait off Joe Thomas for 55 runs which included four boundaries.

Henley continued to score steadily with Morris going on to score 58 runs from 62 balls, including one boundary and three sixes, when he was caught by Tait off David Eaton. Euan Woods added a useful 23 runs as Henley reached 222-9 off their 50 overs while Wright took 4-38.

In reply, Banbury were soon up against it as they lost both openers, Tom Bartlett was caught by Roberts off Scriven for a duck and Sabin only managed to score eight runs when he was trapped lbw by Tom Nugent. Banbury were soon reduced to 49-4 with no batsman able to stay out in the middle for any decent period.

Sahid Yousaf made 31 runs off 29 balls when he was caught by Michael Williams off Andy Rishton. Tait, who hit 45 runs off 89 balls including six fours when he was caught by Williams off Nugent, put on 44 runs with Eaton for the eighth wicket.

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Eaton added a decent 19 runs while a defiant final wicket stand of 25 runs between Thomas and Graham Beer was the only other partnership of note as Banbury somehow clawed their way to 160 in the 43rd over. But they could not cope with arguably the strongest bowling attack in the league as Nugent finished with 3-45, Scriven 3-32 and Andy Rishton 3-31.

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