Taylor goes nap as Banbury make it three on the spin

Banbury beat Horspath by 84 runs in Saturday’s division one fixture.

Having been put into bat, Banbury’s top order failed to produce the runs for the first time this year. Captain Lloyd Sabin and fellow opener Craig Haupt were soon back in the pavilion without much success.

Haupt was caught by Lloyd Belcher off Darryl Brown while Sabin soon followed, caught by Tom Coleman off Belcher. Banbury were reduced to 58-4 before Ollie Clarke and Richard West steadied the ship.

The pair put on 29 runs for the fifth wicket before Clarke was caught by Brown off Jamil Faruk for 16. But West and Shazad Rana took Banbury on to 133-6 in what proved to be the vital partnership.

West was trapped lbw by Brown for 43 runs off 69 balls, including six fours. Rana was run out for 21 runs off 47 balls before Graham Beer 16 and Olly Wright took the visitors on to 187-8 at the close.

In reply, Horspath were soon in trouble as they lost opener Coleman trapped lbw by Beer. Then Taylor set about the top order, helping to reduce the hosts to 35-5 as he took out the next three batsmen, Robert Eason was caught in the slips by Haupt, while Stephen Green and James Phillips were caught behind by Rana.

Brown did his level best to keep Horspath in contention but when he was trapped lbw by West for 39 runs off 45 balls, including six fours, that spelled the beginning of the end. Horspath were finally dismissed in the 30th over as Taylor finished with an impressive 5-12, while West took 2-12, Beer claimed 1-19 and Wright took 1-19 as the Banbury bowlers gave little away.