Ascot defeat puts Fleet top

Published 29 Jul 2010 09:30 0 Comments

ANDY Griffiths's century led the way as Fleet knocked over Royal Ascot with five wickets to spare in Division 2a.

Nick Sweetman's Ascot side couldn't manage a second win in a row but they made Fleet work for the victory by batting first and posting a competitive 250-6.

The 20-points won by Fleet moves them to the top of the table and into contention for the title after Eversley and Datchet both lost.

Ascot recovered from losing James Wensley (6) early on to reach 53-2 but then lost Andy English (27) and Deep Mohain (13) in quick succession. Sweetman (67) then stepped up and recorded his second consecutive half century, in partnership with Gareth Baker (61), who guided them to 193-5.

Hayden Edwards pushed Ascot through the 200 mark with a quickfire 42 off 22 balls.

Baker was disappointed their performance didn't yield more points adding: "It was a pretty good performance given Fleet are top of the league.

"We're slightly disappointing with the result. We dropped a few half chances, they weren't easy, but if we had managed to take those it would have been a lot closer.

"We batted really well and Nick's scored a lot of runs this year but we want the rest of the batsmen to stick with him."

Griffiths, who recorded a half century in Fleet's previous match, bettered that at the Racecourse Ground by finishing on 102 to give his side a solid base.

Andy Parker (15) and Steve Morgan (4) were both dismissed cheaply before Tim Downes entered the crease and racked up an unbeaten 76 to take Fleet over the line.

All five of Ascot's bowlers picked up a wicket including youngsters Edwards and Ateeq Shahid, making his first start of the season.

They were joined by fellow youngsters Cameron Allan and James Wensley making it four players under 20 years old in the Ascot side. Baker added: "We had quite a young team out, which bodes well for the future."

Ascot face local rivals Eversley at Eversley Cross who they know very well from previous encounters. Baker added: "They are a pretty strong side but we've beaten them before. We're looking for another good performance."

Tweet

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

If you are registered with us, you can login here. If you are not registered, do so now.
Once logged in you wont have to complete word verification each time you post.

Prefer not to register?

Screen Name *required

Email (not displayed) *required

Usernames must be 4 - 20 characters. Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users can also take part in competitions and other features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.

Follow @bracknellnews