Town denied victory in the last over by Banbury

Leighton came up agonisingly short of a draw against Banbury 2nds on Saturday but remain rooted to the bottom of Cherwell League Division 1.
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In the season’s final limited overs match, Town won the toss and elected to bat first, but soon had opener Tom Callaghan back in the pavilion as he wafted at one outside off stump without troubling the scorers.

Phillip Whatmore (16) smashed three boundaries through the covers but then played on.

Opener Adam Culley (12) played patiently but was bowled by home skipper Hill. Town were again off to a shaky start at 52-3.

However Tom Scott (67no) and Lee Selfe (31) then produced Leighton’s best partnership of the afternoon worth 70 runs with some enterprising strokeplay.

With Tom Scott providing the anchor role brother Dan chipped in with a quick fire 22 and Leighton captain Jack Kempster scored 12 no as Town’s innings closed on 193-6 from their allotted overs.

The home side made a threatening start with 10 runs off the first over. It was Dan Scott who made the first breakthrough when wicket keeper Ben Smith caught Lamden (8). Hawtin (13) tried to sweep Selfe and top edged a catch to Callaghan.

Bartlett (35) charged down the wicket, missed and was duly stumped by Smith off the bowling of Antony Francis.

Selfe bowled Megson (14) and then had Beck (10) caught by keeper Smith to leave Banbury on 110-5.

Dan Scott then managed to deflect the ball onto the bowlers stumps with Will Briggs (16) out of his ground and then he clean bowled Hill(28) .

Score was now 164-7 with 9 overs to go with Town pushing for victory.

Leighton’s challenge now was to take wickets or stem the flow of runs.

With Alan Priestley bowling a tight line runs were hard to come by and it got to the last over with Banbury needing 4 to win.

A wild swing by Jack Briggs (14no) saw the ball disappear to the square leg boundary and Town had suffered their eighth defeat out of the nine 50/50 as they remain bottom of the table.

In Division 5, Leighton 2nds were beaten by nine wickets after a batting masterclass from Thame Town 2nds’ James Nielson.

Town made a poor start losing both of their openers for ducks, but Richard Raine (47) and Riaan Krynauw (37) then gave some respectability to the score with a 99 run partnership for the third wicket.

However the fall of three quick wickets put Town back into trouble again. Colt Matt Gurney made a patient 23 and together with Andy Smith (12) and James Raine (19no) managed to get the score up to 177-9 from 53 overs.

With some experienced premier League players in their team Thame opened up with a 142 run first wicket partnership, with Nielson hitting 92 not out on their way to 181-1 and victory.