Seven-up Osbourne destroys Wilbraham

STEEPLE Morden swept aside Wilbraham II, thanks to a couple of fine individual performances.

Steve Bailey (42) and skipper Tim Tidey (20) gave the visitors a solid start before 15-year-old Max Carlton came to the wicket and added an impressive 72 to steer Morden to a total of 211-9. Plumb with 3-43 was the pick of the bowlers for Wilbraham.

Opening bowler Martin Osborne immediately ripped into the home side batting returning figures of 7-29 with an impressive spell.

It could have been even better for Osborne but for a couple of dropped catches. Osborne is on a hat-trick going into his next game.

Despite a resolute 37 from D Plumb the total proved too great for the home team and eventually they skittled out for 98, leaving them 113 runs shy.

On another sunny Saturday, bottom placed Foxton arrived at league leaders Cokenach looking for their first win of the season.

Foxton won the toss and decided to bat first. With the new ball in hand James Keel opening the bowling and produced an extremely hostile spell to reduce Foxton to 16-3.

However, Cokenach then managed to spill several chances in the field with Peter Clarke dropping three chances off his own bowling.

Foxton then rallied and reached 60 before losing their next wicket. Once that had fallen though, Peter Clarke mopped up the tail with four wickets and could have had a host more. Foxton collapsed to 78 all out off 27 overs.

Cokenach began their innings trying to avoid complacency with what seemed like an easy target to reach. However, Matt Stevens got a shooter second ball and suddenly Cokenach were 2-1.

However Al Eve and Adam Wardell steadied the ship and put on a useful 30. With Wardell hitting 31 not out and a cameo from Richard Field, Cokenach cruised home with seven wickets and 20 overs to spare to maintain their position at the top of the table.

Baldock travelled to Sandridge on Saturday and, after three weeks of steady improvement, slumped to a desperate 98-run defeat.

Sandridge bated first and on a bowler friendly and somewhat lively wicket they posted 219-5 off 53 overs. This was a fantastic effort as the pitch probably suggested that 150 would be par.

None of Baldock's bowlers managed to bowl the right lines or lengths to trouble the batsmen consistently and the fielding which has been good in previous weeks was also shabby.

In reply Baldock managed a lowly 121 all out as the Sandridge bowlers showed hteir familiarity with the wicket to rip through the top order with some ease.

The pitch was certainly difficult but there were some poor shots played. Only Rob Cant with 31 and Giles Naylor with 23 came to terms with it and in the end Baldock deserved the thrashing.

Hopefully next week at Hatfield Hyde the 1st team will return to winning ways with an improved performance.

On Sunday Baldock played Sawbridgewoth in a friendly and were involved in a good game of cricket which ended in an exciting draw.

Sawbo batted first and posted 203 all out of 45.3 overs with P Marshall getting a sublime 79.Graham Letford took 5-33 in a most entertaining spell.

In reply Baldock got off to a reasonable start reaching 70-3 with Simon Goodlad making a patient 28 and Nick Blenkin 24. However two quick wickets and some tight bowling left some repair work to be done.

The middle order did this keeping Baldock in the game with Andy Payne scoring 34. It came down to eight to win of the last over and with two to win of the last ball a leg bye was score to leave the scores tied and all involved pleased with a superb end to a very friendly and competitive match.

Baldock II hammered Hatfield Hyde by nine wickets thanks to a superb bowling performance from Chris Lewis.

Lewis finished with 7-26 in 15 overs as the visitors were dismissed for 73 in just 29.3 overs, and an unbeaten 56 Richie Waters helped Baldock wrap up the win