Buntingford kept their Herts & Essex League title hopes alive with a good win against Farnham. The visitors decision to put Buntingford in to bat looked a good one when both openers were back in the pavilion with the score on 14-2. Richard Pearce was ne

Buntingford kept their Herts & Essex League title hopes alive with a good win against Farnham.

The visitors' decision to put Buntingford in to bat looked a good one when both openers were back in the pavilion with the score on 14-2.

Richard Pearce was next to depart, leaving Buntingford on 55-3 from 14 overs. His departure brought skipper Barry Walker to the crease to join Chris Chambers.

The two batsman got on top of the Farnham bowlers who began to wilt in the heat. Their partnership of 187 from 29 overs changed the game.

Walker fell on 87 and Chambers went on to complete his second century of the season before he was caught off the last ball of the innings for a magnificent 109.

Buntingford finished on 259-7, with Sellars the pick of the Farnham bowlers, with 4-45 from seven overs.

It was always going to be difficult to reach but Farnham appeared confident.

Francois Dixon bowled Wilton with the score on 26. Oxenham and Prowse then put on 53 before Dixon removed Oxenham in his last over.

Barry Walker bowled his off spin from the Dave Lewis end and wickets tumbled through a mixture of good spin bowling and poor shot selection.

After a flurry of wickets, Farnham were effectively out of the game and they settled on maximum batting points.

Walker finished with figures of 6-45 from nine overs, before Dan Duff finished off the Farnham batting, bowling Stigwood with the score on 204.

Buntingford travel to Willingale on Saturday, hoping to keep up the pressure on the leaders.

Buntingford II visited Birchanger for their league encounter on Saturday and were beaten by six wickets.

Buntingford openers Neil Dookheran and Mike Townsend put together a stand of 56 before Townsend was bowled for 14.

Andy Nash quickly came and went and this saw Stuart Lawrence at the crease to join opener Dookheran.

They started to build a partnership and the score had reached 118-2, when Lawrence was caught on the boundary for 27.

There were still 17 overs remaining and Buntingford looked set to score well over 200.

However, a middle order collapse then ensued.

Although Dookheran was playing a chanceless innings at one end, wickets fell at a rapid rate at the other.

Buntingford went from 147-4 to 172-7 when Dookheran was out for a fine 89.

The tail-enders departed soon after and Buntingford were all out for a disappointing 177. Bilby (7-1-23-3) and White (10-1-55-3) were the pick of the Birchanger bowlers.

Birchanger scored quickly and were always up with or in front of the required run rate. Hitting the ball hard and quite often across the line, they soon had the game within their grasp.

B White (63) and Gilby (77 not out) played the match-winning innings as Birchanger reached their target for the loss of four wickets with 12 overs left.

On Sunday, Buntingford hosted Cokenach in a 40-over friendly game.

Put in to bat, Buntingford started well and Steve Baker and Stuart Calder put together an opening stand of 68 before Baker was bowled for 25.

Francois Dixon then came to the crease and started crashing the ball to all parts of the field.

He and Calder put on 62, out of which Dixon scored 51 before he was bowled by Thompson.

Calder scored 31 and with the rest of the batsman contributing, they had reached 185-9 when skipper Neil Atkins came to the crease to join young colt Chris Jordan.

Together they put on 23 useful runs before Atkins was run out for 11. Buntingford finished on 208, with Jordan unbeaten on 10.

In reply, the Cokenach batsman found Dixon bowling with pace and aggression. Atkins was bowling well at the other end and after nine overs Cokenach had reached 14-1.

Channa came on to bowl and took 2-10 off his six overs, and Mehhe bowled a fine spell at the Dave Lewis end to return figures of 3-16 from five overs.

With Cokenach reduced to 107-8, the game looked over, but captain Matt Stevens and Peter Clarke had other ideas.

They put together a stand of 78 to reach 195-8 and put themselves within touching distance of victory, needing 14 runs from the last 10 balls.

Unfortunately for them, Stevens was caught by Channa off the bowling of Chambers for a fine innings of 80. Soon after, Clarke decided to give Chambers the charge, missed the ball and was stumped for 23, giving victory to Buntingford by 13 runs.