1s v Fleet

As summer hots up, Fleet were the visitors to Ascot and decided to bat on winning the toss.

Fleet made a solid start but Jay Odedra fell for 16 when bowled by Mike Brown. The second wicket then put on 80 runs, but was finally broken when Ollie Clarke took a good catch off the bowling of Karemaker to remove Nilesh Odedra for 31.

This started a mini collapse of 5 wickets for 17 runs including the important wicket of Bruce Friderichs for 59.

However, at 132 for 6, the seventh wicket pair of Lewis Burns 26 an David Batcelor 33 were able to see Fleet bat out the 50 overs for a respectable 200 for 8. Christo Karemaker was the pick of the Ascot attack with 3 for 48.

Before Ascot’s innings started there were in trouble as opener Kamran Zaki had to leave the match for an emergency. Jem Bains was out early but Ascot were steady with a 2nd wicket 50 partnership between Andy Murray 29 and Ollie Clarke. Karemaker made a quick fire 19 and Adam Smith 24 to leave the match in the balance at 124 for 4 (effectively 5).

However, when Ollie Clarke fell for 44, the tail could not wag and Ascot ended on 162 all out with Bruce Friedrichs taking 3 for 20 and David Batchelor 3 for 27.

Henley 3 v 2s

The 2s were at Nettlestead to take on Henley 3, and were asked to bat first.

Ascot were 0 for 2 after the first over as Deep Mohain and James Docker fell to Andy Chappell. But the innings was built around a brilliant 101 from Jeremy Wing, which allowed Ascot to reach 213 all out in the final over. Joseph Summers and Ben Atkin supported with 31 each. Andy Chappell took 4 for 56 for Henley.

In response, Henley were able to build partnerships with every batter in double figures. Shukry Shakoor (52) and Dan Lubbock (49) top scored as Henley eased to a 5 wicket victory. Saria Muhammad took 3 for 59.

Cove 3 v 3s

Ascot made the trip down the M3 to Cove and elected to bat on winning the toss.

James Baldwin removed both Ascot openers for 17 and Malty soon departed to leave Ascot on 25 for 3. But Dan Mallett (62) and Ahmer Mughal (42) helped Ascot regain the initiative and despite the lower order collapsing reached 172 all out off 35.3 overs. Richard Swannell cleaned up with 4 for 9.

Cove started steadily but when James Baldwin (22) was first out, Cove went from 32 for 0 to 35 for 4. Alec Browne held the innings together but with only one other batter making double figures was unable to help Cove stay with the run rate and was last out with a well made 48, as Cove ended on 105 all out with more than 10 overs remaining.

Ahmer Mughal took 3 for 21 and the 3s are keeping the momentum going with 3 wins in a row.

A third of the season has already rushed by and I’m off now to remove the curse at the Racecourse Ground!