Off to table toppers Horspath, missed 4 regular players.

Weather was indifferent and we arrived to see the rain fall, the strip was damp on top and it was important to win the toss.

Never mind............. the Horspath captain Mark Skelton won the toss and stuck us in,

Batting was difficult in our innings and we needed a good base to build on, both Matt and Coops dipped out for one.

We had a slight rally with Jason Heenan and Ian Smith in the middle order but it was ordinary stuff from then on.

Dave top scored with 38

It took Jamie Galvin advancing down the pitch to their leg spinner, spanking him back over his head for 4 to bring up the 100 and our only batting point.

I must comment on Jamie Galvin for his contribution to the game, he fielded extremely well throwing himself around, batted sensibly, we could not afford to bowl him with such a low score (he took the final over) but he never complained or stopped smiling he is a credit to the club.

Defending a hundred is never easy, we started with Coops and Ian "ricardo" Smith, they were 1 for 6 after 2 overs, smudger bowling the opener Eason for 2.

Coops had the New Zealander Hay stumped for 20, after Abs 3rd attempt to take the bails off., Kane replaced Cooper but went for 9 in his only over and Euan Hobbs was introduced to the attack and bowled Meredith.

Smith got another wicket and with a run out Horspath were 75 for 5.

Mark Skelton played a captains innings taking no chances and though Horspath lost another wicket he saw them over the line with the help of Berry.

Another 30 runs would have made it interesting, and had we had our full side then we would have given Horspath more of a  game.

We entertained Sandford St Martin at Manor Fields this weekend.

The Sandford captain called wrong and I had no hesitation in asking them to bat.

This was another game where the opening bowling was frugal from Greenway and Kane with only 60 runs being conceded in the first 26 overs for the loss of 2 wickets by the halfway stage.

Cunningham who plays Bucks over 50's had a couple of lives but contributed 60 runs to the final total, Bartholomew added 36 and extra's 28.

That is an area which must be addressed.

We welcomed back Les "the brain" Taylor from university duty and in tandem with Ian Smith both turning the ball they plundered the Sandford batting taking 4 wickets a piece for 72 runs Sandford reaching 193 a good total on that strip.

The batting performance for Bletchley was imperious in most parts.

Dave got a consequtive half century, and looks in form.

Matt chipped in with 17.

Coops "snicked off" for 6

L'roy Taylor 72no, now the last time I saw him bat he was about 16, he was brash, belligerent and a slogger.

Refined is not quite the word to describe his innings but he's got bigger "guns" and is brash, belligerent and does not slog so much, a couple of sixes were sweetly timed and huge.

So he is off to for the 1st next week.

Jude played a responsible innings 28no off 11 balls faced.

So we cruised to victory 196 -3 off  36 overs, and now lie 2nd in the table.

Next week will probably be our stiffest challenge away to Horspath who are top by 57 points and going for promotion.

The Skip

All round another good day.

Bourton Vale for both 1sts and 2nds

We had Bourton Vale visiting and with some Bourton 1st team players missing, we were hoping for both Bletchley teams to play slightly weaker sides.

Bourton could only put out 10 players, they only had 9 at 10 o'clock.

The game was on, we elected to bat first and make best use of the pitch, Dave and Matt continue to provide a solid bedrock for the team.

Good batting from the side, against some challenging seam amd spin bowling, we posted a respectable target 214-7 and this week the middle order were contributing with the runs.

Bowling wise we were always on top, Chris took a 5fer, Des chipped in with 4 wickets and despite a couple of dollies being put down it was a good performance 119 all out.

Need to be sharper in the field as we will have harder challenges in the weeks to come.

25 points and the 1st X1 had the same result so the club is hopefully gaining some momentum.

Next week Sandford St Martin the early season fixture was rained off so we wil play what we see on the day.

The Skip

We were off to Cumnor, having beaten them at Manor Fields we were looking for the double.

We have had a bit of rain in the last week, and were unsure what track we would find as their team shares with another club and does not maintain the square.

Cumnor are a good bunch and we always look forward to playing against them.

It is a small ground with inviting boundaries for those who want to bottom hand it.

Upon inspection a grassy track, both skippers thought low score must win the toss......I did and stuck them in.

After 20 overs they were 52 Kane and Greenway bowling tight.

A couple of missed chances, we must take the catches.

Madden 74 opening, McCutheon 41, Shepherd 44 and Bailey 31 underpinned their innings with some big boundaries near the end saw Cumnor to 233-9

Great bowling by Ian "Ricardo" Smith 4 for 31 off 10

A challenging score. both skippers had missread the pitch.

A good opening partnership of 76 by Dave and Matt Shepherd provided a foundation, Matt went on to score 56.

Chris at 3 retired hurt, But a brilliant partnership between Coops and Jude saw us close to the line Coops not out at the end of the match 56 and Jude scoring an excellent 43.

Darren and Coops saw the game out and we finished on 234 -4

Darren got his first runs with a towering 6 then must have missed the next 20 balls mith some might air shots but his 19no ensured we won the game

467 runs scored on the day, when both captains had thought low score.

A great days cricket

Cropredy arrive at Manor fields lying second in the table, Bletchley not their strongest X1 of the season.

Points of the game win the toss and put them in look to chase down the score..................1st part of the mission completed, the skipper  won the toss and put them in.

The title say's it all.

We had a limited bowling attack, I mean the skipper had to open for goodness sake..... figures you would die for.

Fielding was indifferent on occasions, where we shipped 20 odd runs that were unneccesary.

Had the odd catch stuck they may have reached 150 or less.

The title say's it all.

But we had to chase down 192 which was not unachieveable, the one downside was an injury to Abs the ball being bottom edged on to his knee, I thought he had those big gloves to catch the ball.

One limping player and he was in at 7.

He was hampered as a batsman.

At 110-3 after 26 overs and the ability to play till 7.30 it was on.

But the Cropredy bowlers hung in there and Hussain the 5th bowler took 5 for 12 off 9.

The title say's it all.

On reflection we were a batsman short, even with the missfields, we could have achieved the winning runs.

Lessons to be learnt simple... walking in, anticipate, be energetic, take the catch, put the pressure on and think about the game scenario.

We lost by 37 runs..........20 shipped in the field!

The title say's it all.

Away next week, for all the worldwide viewers, tune in same time on any channel.

The Skip

Welcome Wolverton to sunny Manor Fields.

Why not have a bat as we are not at our strongest said I.

What a clever bowling decission I thought pace and spin to open up.

The variation was meant to come from the spin bowler, but Euan has yet to learn how to put 1,2,3,4,5,6 balls in the same area if fact one over 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 two wides.

So that old warhorse had to prepare himself for another marathon stint and the captain entered the fray.

Ben bowled beautifully and combined with his match winning 27no was man of the match for me.

We kept Wolverton down to a below par 153 all out after 47 overs gifting our batsmen 6 overs

4 wickets for Ben who bowled the best I have seen so far this season, the skip chipped in with 3 and new spin bowling sensation...... sorry I mean Jude accounted for 2.

Euan did get the prize scalp of Glen Dickinson the Wolverton captain but needs to get some belief and practice 24/7 to prove he is the man for the job.

Batting wise we needed to put a partneship together Matt got us off to a good start and is looking really comfortable at this level.

Liam "Monty" Fox fielded well and scored a tidy 18.

Darren is due a decision to go in his favour and has been unlucky in the last few weeks.

Jude was Jude unpredictable one minute, sublime another, I am sure I get greyer watching him bat but his 55no allowed us to win the match from the batting prospective.

An odd thing happened though in this game it's almost as rare as sighting a UFO we took 8 yes 8 yes 8 catches so an alround performance from the team and each department did its job well............Thanks and 25 points

Next week hot food, music, the odd drink, thats after the match of course preferably.

Cropedry are in town and we need to show this division what we are capable of.

The Skip

A weak side away to Oxford IV and we were struggling in all departments.

Oxford won the toss and batted, and with a the bowling attack centred around Greenway, Shepherd and Kane we need some early success, an error bowling Kobi who went for 29 off 3 overs really set up the game for Oxford and with Smith 49 and Latif 51no and a few slogs at the end we were chasing 212.

We had a reasonable batting side down to 8 and we thought the total acheivable.

The first lesson bat 1st if you can as the track went down hill in the second innings, and we were never in the game.

A belligerent innings by Grassy of 45 was the only notable performance and we lost in the penultimate over when Kane failed to block it out.

It would be interesting to look at the batting averages after next game which marks the halfway point in the season.

Maybe a little soul searching is required by the batsmen

We are not putting enough partnerships together during our innings and are suffering accordingly.

A settled side would also help ensure as a minimum that we can show we are worthy of this division and could play more consistent cricket.

The Skip

We were at home to Abingdon on a decent surface and I had no hesitation in batting first

The top order performed brilliantly, 40 for the opening partnership of Shepherd and Shepherd.

Matt going on to score 68 in a partneship of 154 with Steve Gordon who was finally out for 95.

So 202 for 3 with 12 overs available but then a tale of woe, it's not just the tail not wagging it the whole body.

Extra's on 23 the next highest score, the total contribution from the remaining batters 38.

This is an area of concern as we can't always expect a platform of 200 to build on.

Come on guys a little bit of application is required here.

But 241 at the end of the innings was good and hopefully challanging for Abingdon

We had not accounted for Warboys who after taking 4 wickets with his spin cam e out swinging and riding his luck.

He did comment to me that he had been out for nought in his last two innings anjd was making amends.

We took 3 quick wickets and at 35-3 Abingdon were under pressure, but a captains innings by Butcher (76) and a partnership of 134 with Warboys saw Abingdon homing in.

Relief when they were both out the score on 201 and two wickets from Coops had us in the hunt again but we could not take the remaining 3 wickets and they ended on 223 at the end of their innings a winning draw for Bletchley.

There's an old saying "Catches win matches".

How poignant.

The skipper was in fine form winning the toss again, electing to bat and intent on keeping Horspath out in the sun for 3 hours.

Matt “the run machine” Shepherd was drafted into the squad to replace Chris Greenway and looked good opening the batting, playing some sweet strokes off the opening bowlers and not looking at all intimidated.

At 50 for 0 after 16 overs things were not looking too bad and 74-2 at the halfway stage looked like a good platform to post a reasonable total, anything over 180 would have done.

Steve Gordon on season début contributed a useful 42 and Abs 36 not out ensured all the overs were used but there was a repetition of the previous weeks collapse that saw us post a meagre target of 167.

Our ground fielding was exemplary but we dropped 6 catches 4 of them sitters and we let Horspath off the hook. If we had clung onto 1 or 2 it may have been a different result.

Ben bowled tightly and 5 an over was the asking rate from half way through their innings, but some lusty blows saw them home in the last over.

A week off from the league next Saturday, and a friendly beckons, a good opportunity to get in some batting and catching practice.

Skip

Another away trip to watch the precipitation fall vertically deja vu.

Fortunately sense prevailed, actually it was the standing water at the end of the square, that prompted that GOD in a white coat to say this is not playable lets head to the pub.

So frustration for another wasted afternoon, but the other Div 6 teams faired no better.

Next week Horspath at home and the weather is looking ggggoooooooooooooodddd.

For your next installment tune in same time, same channel.

Skip