Cumnor finish the season with a flourish, beating Oxford Downs to win the U15 Hundred competition.
The first semi-final of the day saw Oxford Downs beat Challow and Childrey by 2 runs. Batting first, Downs scored freely, with Sutton scoring 47 from 39 balls and Owens 27 from 25. Other contributions helped their side to a defendable 136-5 from their 100 balls. The pick of the Challow bowlers was Saunders who returned figures of 2-37 off 20 balls. In response, Challow started well, with openers Westmoreland and Gray putting on 45 for the opening stand. However, Hunt rattled through the middle order, taking 3 wickets for 22 runs and leaving Challow on the ropes. A gutsy innings from Walters who scored 50 from 28 balls didn’t prove enough and needing six from the final ball of the innings, only managed to score a four – seeing Oxford Downs take victory and their spot in the final.
Semi-final 2 was between Witney Mills and Cumnor, with the former batting first. Losing early wickets, Mills were reeling at 8-3 and didn’t manage to recover, falling to 70 all out from 92 balls. Cumnor shared around the wickets between all of their bowlers, with Nicholson being the standout with figures of 3-5 from 17 balls. Cumnor lost opener Carlisle and captain Ford-Clough cheaply, but Filo (33) managed to see his side over the line and into the final. The pick of the Witney Mills bowlers was Tilley, who in a valiant effort to take his side to victory recorded figures of 3-18 off his 20 balls. However, it wasn’t enough and Cumnor got over the line with 6 wickets to spare, seeing them line up with Oxford Downs in the final.
After a short break, the final got underway, with Oxford Downs batting first. Sutton continued his form from the semi-final, striking a run a ball 27 – joined by Hunt who put on 28 of his own. From there a flurry of wickets fell, with Downs concluding their innings at 106-9 from their 100 balls. Cumnor’s bowlers did well to keep the total down, with Spokes being the standout with 3-13 from his 20 balls. Cumnor started the innings off slowly, with Nicholson and Filo being restricted well by the Downs bowlers. With the run rate climbing, captain Ford-Clough and Carlisle combined to put on 50 and with 2 balls to spare got their side over the line with 7 wickets in hand, securing the trophy.
The presentation of the trophy and medals was conducted by Joe Clapton (Finals Day Manager for the day) who thanked East and West Hendred for hosting, the umpires, coaches, scorers and all the teams for a great day of cricket. Thank you to all clubs who competed in this year’s Competition, and we look forward to seeing more great cricket over the summer.
Congratulations again to Cumnor for winning the competition