Not much more captain Whatmore can do to win

Whilst his team mates were troubled by the home bowlers, captain Whatmore thumped the ball to all parts of the large arena hitting 13 fours and one huge six on his way to exactly 100 before being caught on the boundary trying another big hit.

Ben Smith (15no), Antony Francis (14) and Jack Kempster (13) supported their skipper but Town’s total of 204-9 was never likely to be enough.

Dinton welcomed back to their ranks Will Sutliffe, a former first class county player who scored a chanceless 107 no.

Wherever the Leighton players were placed in the field, Sutliffe guided the ball into a vacant spot.

Town did make some progress taking five wickets with successes for Lee Selfe (3-64), Tom Light (1-28) and Jack Kempster (1-38).

But the home side retained their place at the top of the division with a comfortable victory, while Leighton slip to seventh in the Division 1 table after defeat.

It was better news for Great Brickhill though, who climbed to second after beating Long Marston by seven wickets.

Winning the toss, captain Graeme Carter put the home side in to bat.

It was an arduous task in the field though, with wickets hard to come by, especially as Long Marston built a strong partnership between Bastin (102 not out) and Wade (59 not out) to take their side to a modest 210-4.

That wasn’t enough to defend though, as Doug Aris hit an unbeaten 71 in partnership with captain Carter (67) to comfortably see Brickhill to victory (211-3).

In Division 3, Great Brickhill 3rds slipped to fifth after losing to Horley.

David Clark’s unbeaten 130 put the visitors in charge as they scored 274-8.

But despite putting on 63 for the first wicket, there was little in the way of resistance down the order as Brickhill were eventually skittled for 150.

It was a low scoring affair, but ultimately ended in disappointment for Leighton Buzzard 2nds as they played Abingdon Vale 2nds at Bell Close.

Put in to bowl, Gareth Benger was in excellent form for the home team and was soon making dramatic inroads into the visitors batting line up.

In a 14 over spell he took 7-24 which included five clean bowled.

Harry Ryan took 1-27 and Oliver Chambers 2-10 as they skittled the away side for just 63.

Given the modest total to chase though, things didn’t go well for Leighton.

Dan Hartley took 5-14, while there were two wickets apiece for Luke Mitchell and Paul Butcher as Leighton capitulated, skittled for just 57.