Ickwell made to pay for some wayward bowling

Castor & Ailsworth batted first on what was to prove a challenging pitch for the batsmen on Saturday.

Ross Cunningham (3-32) and Ross Fensome (3-28) restricted the home side to 75 for 4 and Aiden Steels (70) was the one batsman to make a sizeable score.

There was a minor recovery by Castor but they lost their last four wickets for seven runs and were all out for 168 in the 42nd over.

Unfortunately the second highest scorer of the innings was ‘Extras’ who totalled 42, including 28 wides, and this was to prove a vital contribution and the difference between the sides in this match.

Milin Gandhi (52) and Peter Sowerby (23) got Ickwell off to a good start.

However, when Ashley Killingsworth (4-22) came on to bowl in the 19th over he soon got amongst the wickets and he removed the middle order batting.

There was not much later resistance as Ickwell collapsed to 141 all out and were to lose the match by 28 runs – what a coincidence that this was the same numbers as the wides given away by Ickwell!

A powerful opening partnership put paid to Waresley II’s hopes of winning at Eaton Socon II.

Waresley put the home side into bat but Simon Cooper (72) and Jamie Vale (94) made them regret that as they piled on 134 for the first wicket.

Terry Hayden mopped up three wickets further down the order as Eaton Socon made a total of 234-9.

In their innings a succession of Waresley batsmen made starts only to get themselves out before posting a decent score. Alejandro Freeman was the exception, scoring an unbeaten 55, but the innings closed 176-7, 58 runs short.

In Division Three Connor Smith (75), Adam Lawrence (51) and Thomas Boyd (60*) steered Biggleswade towards victory over Houghton & Wyton. After Biggleswade posted 236-6, the visitors were dismissed for 123 with two wickets apiece for James Gauge, Stuart Garwood and George Boyd.

Ickwell II enjoyed better fortunes against Castor & Ailsworth, winning the home clash against their second string.

The visitors won the toss and put Ickwell into bat and Darren Williams (35) and Sam Barrow (75) took advantage to put together an opening stand of 88.

This helped Ickwell get to 208 from their 45 overs. Once again Chris Rix did not get his chance to make the few runs he needed to join the 10,000 club.

Sam Barrow (4-22) went on to establish himself as man-of-the-match as he not only took the most wickets but also gave very few runs away in his overs. Tinu Thankappan (3-14) assisted with three wickets in his miserly spell of eight overs.

Skipper Tom Jackson played his part by taking a stunning catch that broke a stubborn third wicket partnership. After this there was little resistance from the later batsmen and Ickwell recorded a 53 run victory.