Stony Stratford bounced back from their nightmare at Peterborough last week by putting in their best performance of the season at home to fourth placed Old Northamptonians on Saturday. Despite dominating the match from the first ball to the last, Stony were unable to finish their opponents off and had to settle for a winning draw, a draw which has lifted them off the foot of the table.
Visiting captain Ross McLean won the toss and with the wicket and the weather ideal for batting, chose to bowl first. It was to prove a costly error of judgement as Stony made hay in the sunshine. Stony’s batters have struggled in general so far this season, but the top three hit form all in the same week to rack up a huge score. Openers Garth Davson and Mihir Choksi got Stony off the best possible start, smashing 71 from the first ten overs and going on to put on 162 for the first wicket inside 25 overs. Davson was particularly brutal on anything short or wide and having nicked one through the slips in the first over off McLean he didn’t give another chance as he raced to a first hundred for Stony off just 93 balls. To save running on what was a boiling hot day, Davson decided to smash 75 of his runs in boundaries! The elation of getting to his first hundred for the club saw him lose concentration and played a lazy sweep on 103 to be dismissed lbw. Choksi’s innings was more sedate but he supported Davson superbly by rotating the strike and also dispatching anything loose to the boundary. Joined by the in form Dion Ebrahim at the crease, the pair put on 85 for the second wicket, taking the score up to 247 in quick time. After three seasons at the club, Choksi finally chalked up a fine maiden century for the club and one that with his talent he should be able to add to on a regular basis. Like Davson before him, he fell almost immediately after reaching three figures, caught in the deep off the bowling of McLean for 101. Whilst all this was going on around him, the experienced Ebrahim had crept to a half century of his own almost un-noticed! With the ONs wilting in the heat and chasing a lot of leather, Ebrahim cashed in as the innings drew to a close. He played his usual array of shots all around the wicket, including a couple of brilliant reverse paddle shots of ONs spinner Simon Hill and got to 91 from 90 balls before perishing to a catch in the deep by Martyn Cory. With the score on 319 for 5 and with Ebrahim short of his century, skipper Steve Bellew called his side in three overs early.
Any plans ONs had of chasing down the monster total were over inside the first ten overs as Stony bowled and fielded excellently in what were still very favourable batting conditions. Habib Ullah produced his best performance in a Stony shirt, taking 4 for 47 in 17 hostile overs. He started by removing dangerman, former Glamorgan opener Richard Kaufmann for 4, beating him for pace and removing his off stump. Chris Guy replaced Steve Bellew at the Bowls Club end after 5 overs and was rewarded with the wicket of Bedfordshire keeper batsman George Arblaster for 21, caught by Nick Allen in the gully. When Tom Webb flashed at a quick ball from Ullah, he could only edge it to Bellew who took a straightforward catch at second slip to leave ON’s in trouble on 44 for 3. The wickets continued to tumble as Stony stepped on the gas searching for that elusive first win. Cory chipped a simple catch to Choksi for 8, giving Ullah a third wicket. Bellew replaced Guy (1 for 27) and opted for the spin of Simon Myatt. After being clubbed for a couple of boundaries by Richard Afford, Myatt responded by taking a fantastic diving return catch, low down off his own bowling to leave the visitors in real trouble on 67 for 5. Then, as so often happens in games like this, there was a partnership which slowed Stony’s progress down. Kiwi Rory Darkins (32) and youngster Mobushar Khawaja (26) put on 48 for the sixth wicket and used up valuable overs for their side who only had survival in mind. Khawaja looked very comfortable despite the pressure of the situation, but lost concentration when Myatt served up a half tracker and instead of smashing it for six, he only managed to find Nick Allen at mid on. ON’s were in block mode now and skipper McLean was blocker in chief, not giving a chance as he steered his side home. ON’s lost one more wicket along the way, with Afaq Babbar getting bored with blocking and having a huge mow at Myatt to be bowled for 14. Stony had a couple of very tough chances in the field along the way but could not have done much more to get the win, but in the end they had to settle for 14 points which moves them above next week’s opponents Wellingborough.
Stony’s 2nd XI mid season slump continued with a 51 run defeat at Great Oakley. Chris Swain won the toss for Stony and early on, his bowlers did a great job, reducing the home side to 139 for 6. Dave Avery’s excellent season continued as he claimed 4 for 57 while there were three wickets for Harsh Jethra. But the Great Oakley tail wagged and Dale Jones 46 took his side up to a competitive 225 all out. Stony’s batting has really struggled of late and although most of the top order got starts, no-one was able to go on and produce a match winning innings. Openers Steve Underdown (33) and John Lambe (24) putt on 44 for the first wicket and Chris Swain and Mike Avery both got going with 17, but it was 15 year old Tom Moore who was most impressive for Stony. His 40 came from 62 balls and gave Stony hope, but he received little support from the lower order none of whom reached double figures as Stony were all out for 174. They are still in the promotion shake up at this stage, but are going to have to seriously improve over the coming weeks if they want to remain in contention to go up.
Stony’s 3rd XI were involved in an incredible game away at Kempston Hammers 2nds in Division 6. Batting firsts, Stony got off to a good start thanks to captain Andy Preston’s 32 and at 94 for 2 the visitors seemed to be heading for a decent total. But an incredible slump saw them fall to 109 all out and when the home side raced to 61 for 1 in reply off just 19 overs, Stony were dead and buried. However, they tore up the script with an incredible comeback which saw Kempston lose their last nine wickets for just 46 runs. Neil Fewtrell took four wickets for Stony and captain Preston took a juggling catch at Gully off the bowling of Andrew Ellemore to spark the celebrations and move Stony up to mid table and back towards the promotion places.