Cricket: Leighton beat Eggington in sixes final
THE sun shone brightly for Leighton Buzzard’s annual cricket sixes tournament at Bell Close last week as local clubs competed for bragging rights – but in the end they remained in town.
The tournament saw three teams play each evening in a round robin format, with the evening’s winner going forward to the semi-finals on Friday.
Monday saw cup holders Eggington Foresters progress through to the semi-finals with comfortable victories against Long Marston and Stoke Hammond.
On Tuesday Sam Cherry of Dunstable posed a serious threat to the supply of match balls with some huge hits that saw balls disappearing into Grovebury Road from both Eaton Bray’s and Leighton’s bowlers.
Eaton Bray produced two decent performances but were edged out by Dunstable and Leighton, and the main bout of the evening saw Dunstable score 63 from their five overs, but the hosts scored 66 from four to go through.
Only two teams arrived for Wednesday’s games and WH Simmonds and Flitwick played a best-of-three series, with the latter progressing through.
Eversholt and Stewkley played in the first game on Thursday, with the former scoring 75 for a comfortable victory.
Great Brickhill then beat Stewkley to set up a tussle with Eversholt to conclude the proceedings.
Eversholt batted first and scored 70-2, and needing 17 off the last over, Anton De Beer crashed three 6s in three balls to see Brickhill through.
The first semi-final held on Friday night matched Great Brickhill with Leighton, and once again De Beer was in excellent form as he smashed five 6s in the highest personal score of the week – his 68 not out giving Brickhill a strong total of 78-2.
Leighton began slowly and needed 42 from two overs, but Phil Whatmore (49) and Chris Thompson (20) duly obliged, as the winning runs came off the last ball of the fifth over.
The second semi-final saw Flitwick score 53-1 against Eggington, who responded with 54-1 and two overs to spare to set up a final against near neighbours Leighton.
Eggington won the toss and invited Leighton to bat first, with the home side going on to score 63-1 as Kempster (13), Whatmore (32) and Thompson (10) got the runs.
In the gathering gloom over Bell Close, Eggington found runs hard to come by, and when the overs ran out they had managed just 53-3 to give Leighton the title by 10 runs.
So the Leighton squad of Jack Kempster, Adam Culley, Sam Janes, Dave Roberts, Chris Thompson and Phillip Whatmore were the victors in a week of exciting cricket and duly collected their trophies from Leighton Buzzard club president Roy Lemon.
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Weather for Leighton Buzzard
Saturday 18 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 8 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
