BUNTINGFORD chalked up their second straight win as skipper Barry Walker led them to victory against Willingale on Saturday. Having won the toss, Walker elected to bat, but after his side had lost two early wickets, Chris Chamber (119) and the in-form Wal

BUNTINGFORD chalked up their second straight win as skipper Barry Walker led them to victory against Willingale on Saturday.

Having won the toss, Walker elected to bat, but after his side had lost two early wickets, Chris Chamber (119) and the in-form Walker (71) then put together a partnership of 201 runs for the third wicket.

This enabled Buntingford to finish on 265-4 as Willingale bowler, Heginbotham, claimed all four wickets that fell with figures of 10-1-45-4.

In reply, Willingale were always up with the required run rate, and Robinson (99 not out) and Stammers (68) seemed to be well placed to see their side through to victory with runs coming easily on a batsman-friendly wicket.

Walker then brought himself on, taking the pace off the ball and in so doing changed the course of the game.

The Willingale batsman struggled against the turning ball and they were dismissed for 206, with Walker ending up with 4-16 from just six overs.

After their good start to the season, Buntingford II came crashing down to earth with a comprehensive defeat at the hands of near neighbours Westmill.

Winning the toss, Buntingford asked Westmill to bat, and this looked a good decision when leading batsman Beedell was bowled by White without scoring.

However, after that, the Westmill batsman all scored runs against mostly average bowling.

Westmill finished all out on 225, with Jones top scoring on 35. Glasscock was the bowling exception with fine figures of 10-5-16-3.

In reply, Buntingford were soon in trouble, losing their two opening batsman in the first six overs.

Things did not improve and five of next seven batsmen were dismissed without scoring. Buntingford were all out for just 77 runs in the 27th over.

Ridley (8-5-7-1) and Amos (10-2-28-4) were the pick of the Westmill bowlers.

The one consolation for Buntingford was the batting of young colts player Martin Forster, who went in at number three and was still there at the finish, undefeated on 30.

On Sunday, Buntingford hosted Ardeley & Walkern in a friendly 40-over game, with both sides containing good proportion of young players.

Batting first, Buntingford reached 159-7 with Forster (31), Goldie (28), Chambers (23) and Duff (23 not out) being the main contributors.

In reply, Jim Eggington opened the batting for Ardeley and scored 52 before sportingly retiring himself.

Then Daly (13), Eggington jnr (25), Dyson (16) and Dowler senior (14 not out) helped Ardeley reach a winning total of 162-8 with just two overs remaining.

Reed II went down by 79 runs in Sunday afternoon's friendly match against Waresley.

Waresley batted first and Adrian Lawrence looked competent while scoring 19 before cutting hard to gulley where Peter Baker took the first of three scorching catches.

Numbers three and four soon followed for ducks by which time Waresley were precariously placed at 32-3.

The bowler on each occasion had the familiar surname of Tidey, but this was young Jack, nephew of the evergreen Peter as his in-duckers had earned him superb figures of 3-11 from five overs at that stage.

Opener Evans (39) and Sam Johnson (32) then rebuilt the innings and Waresley reached 125-7.

There were two wickets apiece for Tom Greaves and Jason Pallett, but from there, the adult pair of Andrew Lawrence (45 not out) and Jim Keys (38 not out) took hold of proceedings enabling the home side to end on 208-7 after their 45 overs.

Maseeh Naeem (28) and David Johnson (27) provided a solid opening platform in reply, and Tom Greaves (25) and Sam Brown (15) kept up the momentum.

However there was then a mid-order collapse, and Reed were all-out for 129, leaving Waresley victors.