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The Road To Lord's





Round Three - Regional Semi-Finals

Continuing my Village Cup odyssey, only one of the three "focus" clubs were in action on Sunday as Cropston (East Midlands) and Ynystawe (Glamorgan & Gwent) both progressed without a ball bowled due to opponents forfeiting, leaving only...

Sonning Cricket Club



Group 25 - Berkshire
Sonning (east of Reading)
Thames Valley Cricket League, Division 3A (currently 8th)

Hosting Cookham Dean at King George's Field, Sonning were clear underdogs against the Thames Valley Division 1 side who've won the Berkshire group every summer but one since 2016; a year in which the visitors went on to be national quarter-finalists.  Nevertheless, the hosts held Cookham Dean to less than four an over in the first dozen, and when Peter Higginbottom beat the defence of Curran Bains to reduce the away side to 46-3 - the second wicket in as many overs - there was cause for cautious optimism in the Sonning camp.  But Cookham Dean skipper Greg Davis came to the crease, struck his first six off the fifth ball faced, and never looked back.  In an innings that eventually totalled 148 off 75 deliveries, Davis pulverised the Sonning attack with able support from Simret Mangat at the other end, who made a half-century before being caught behind. Sonning fought back as best they could towards the end, with Jacob Fitton taking crucial middle-order wickets (including that of Davis) and Peter Higginbottom finishing as pick of the bowlers with 3-54 off his eight overs, though credit must also go to Oliver Rowe for exerting early control and recording the only maiden over of the innings. Still, Cookham Dean finished with an imposing 335-9, and though Sonning made a game effort of going big in the first few overs, the demise of the last round's hero Higginbottom for 12 (scored entirely in boundaries) seemed to take the wind out of their sails. Skipper Peter Dean made 46 before he was stumped, and Louis Dean 42, but even a team of Deans couldn't have saved Sonning as they stumbled to 181 all out, losing by 154 runs. The focus will shift to Cookham Dean in a fortnight as they face White Waltham in the regional final.

A few more matches I managed to follow by stream in this round:

In Group 1 (Scotland) at Scroggie Park, Falkland hosted Freuchie in a classic low-scoring encounter in the shadow of the Lomond Hills. In front of an appreciative crowd in a tree-lined setting, the 1985 competition champions Freuchie batted first and made 168, with 39 from Ian Stonebridge and an unbeaten 36 from Dale Cowan, the latter playing a solid hand in pushing the score up to a competitive total with some big shots at the back end. The visitors then pegged the hosts back early as Falkland lost one opener and waited nearly three overs for their first boundary, which came courtesy of Charlie Cassell; with the sky spitting rain, a sudden collapse then left them 25-5 after a dozen overs. It required a partnership of enormous patience and care from Euan Sloan and Jack Henderson, soaking up incredible pressure and steadily rebuilding, before Falkland could go on the attack. Bringing up his half-century at a little less than a run a ball in the twenty-eighth over by caressing the ball through backward point, Henderson was the star of the show as he accelerated through the gears, and an unbeaten 89 was his reward as Falkland cruised home to a 4-wicket win with overs to spare just as the heavens opened over Fife.

Group 18 (Gloucestershire) gave us the bosky rural surroundings of Corse & Staunton, who won the toss and put opponents and 2021 national quarter-finalists Rockhampton in to bat. An exemplary bowling performance followed as Matt Brown tied the batsmen down, going for less than two an over as he finished with 2-14 and two maidens, while the more expensive Callum King compensated with three wickets. In their reply, the hosts lost skipper Matthew Cox for 2 to the fifth legal delivery of the innings, and fellow opener Edward Goolden followed for 14 ten overs later, but the third-wicket partnership of Stuart Tame and keeper Tim Dannatt completed a fairly untroubled pursuit of the total with over a dozen overs to spare.

In Group 23 (Essex & Suffolk), in pleasant parkland north of Chelmsford, Great Waltham welcomed East Anglians Easton in a real thriller. With the visitors putting Great Waltham in to bat, a run-a-ball 78 from opener Clout anchored an innings that saw the reigning Mid-Essex club champions lose four top-order batsmen in the first twenty overs with three ducks and six runs between them. Some lower order hitting helped Great Waltham to reach 183 before they were bowled out, and that total should have been defendable against their Two Counties Division 2 opponents. Despite suffering their own top-order woes, Easton's skipper Will Lavergne contributed a half-century to the chase before holing out off the very next ball, and when Chris Wells was caught behind for a second-ball duck shortly afterward, the Suffolk men required 62 off 50 balls with only three wickets remaining. The odds tipped even further in Great Waltham's favour when Jamie Harper, whose quickfire cameo added 18 runs, edged behind swinging wildly at a short ball, and William Foskett was bowled in the next over to leave an equation of 48 off 33 for final pair Sam Hall and Nathan Jenkins. The hosts beat the bat once or twice, and one bottom-edge looked perilously close to carrying to the keeper's glove, yet with Jenkins carefully rotating the strike and Hall plundering some big boundaries - including a thumping six and a masterful slashing cut through backward point - Easton brought it down to 18 off the last two overs, and Hall's boundary-rich pinch-hitting carried the away side over the line with four balls to spare, leaving Hall himself unbeaten on 43.

Group 30 (East Sussex) took us to the southern fringes of the Weald and Crowhurst Park, where Rottingdean were the opposition in the cradle of cricket. Midway between Hastings and Battle, just a couple of miles from Senlac Hill, towering electricity pylons set in green arable fields peered down on land once trodden by Norman invaders, and now occupied by local rivals who ran roughshod over the hosts. Crowhurst Park chose to bat, but the 32 from skipper Nick Peters at number seven was the top score as the hosts limped to 138-7 off their forty overs. In reply, Rottingdean motored along at four an over with a half-century for opener Mohammad Mustaq Islam inside twenty-one overs; when Islam departed, his erstwhile partner Henry Ledden completed his own fifty en route to an unbeaten 61 as Rottingdean breezed home for a 9-wicket victory.


Last year's champions Calmore Sports and runners-up Alvanley have reached their finals in Groups 26 and 8 respectively, while national semi-finalists Stoke Green remain in contention to top Group 21. 2020 champions Colwall were knocked out by West Malvern in Group 14, and the Group 22 final will pit 2020 runners-up Redbourn against Wheathampstead, who knocked out three-time champions Reed - a dominant force of the last decade - in a thrilling quarter-final earlier this month. Two-time champions Goatacre are vying to win Group 20, and 2020 semi-finalists North Perrott have reached the Group 27 final.

Full list of the Round Four Regional Finals to be played on 5th June:

Group 1 - Scotland: Meigle vs Falkland
Group 2 - North East: Stocksfield vs Wolviston
Group 3 - North Yorkshire (North): Folkton & Flixton vs Rockliffe Park
Group 4 - North Yorkshire (South): Carlton Towers vs Patrington
Group 5 - West, South Yorks & Humberside: Ackworth vs Houghton Main
Group 6 - Cumbria & North Lancs: Cleator vs Torrisholme
Group 7 - South Lancs: Rainford vs Ainsdale
Group 8 - Cheshire & Clywd: Alvanley vs Stayley
Group 9 - Derbyshire: Dove Holes vs Rolleston
Group 10 - West Midlands: Milford Hall vs Quatt
Group 11 - East Midlands: Calverton vs Cropston
Group 12 - Warwickshire: Fillongley vs Nether Whitacre
Group 13 - Worcestershire: Dumbleton vs Hagley
Group 14 - Herefordshire & Powys: West Malvern vs Wormelow
Group 15 - Northamptonshire: Kimbolton vs Weekley & Warkton
Group 16 - Dyfed: Bronwydd vs Carew or Cresselly
Group 17 - Glamorgan & Gwent: Pentyrch vs Ynystawe
Group 18 - Gloucestershire: Corse & Staunton vs Marshfield
Group 19 - Oxfordshire: Langford vs Oxford Downs
Group 20 - Dorset & Wiltshire: Winsley vs Goatacre
Group 21 - Buckinghamshire: Bledlow Village vs Stoke Green
Group 22 - Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire: Redbourn vs Wheathampstead
Group 23 - Essex & Suffolk: Horndon On The Hill vs Easton
Group 24 - Surrey: Blackheath vs Valley End
Group 25 - Berkshire: Cookham Deane vs White Waltham
Group 26 - Hampshire: Calmore Sports vs Bramshaw
Group 27 - Somerset & Avon: North Perrott vs Congresbury
Group 28 - Devon & Cornwall: Grampound Road vs Gulval
Group 29 - Cambridgeshire & Norfolk: Foxton Granta vs Histon
Group 30 - East Sussex: Rottingdean vs Mayfield
Group 31 - West Sussex: Findon vs West Chiltington & Thakeham
Group 32 - Kent: Leeds & Broomfield vs Sibton Park