The Outside Edge

This month’s cricket review from our local teams

BY CHRIS COOK

May 1st to May 7th, Wokingham’s midweek 1st team had a 75-run win away at Sandhurst, with Anthony Clapham top scoring with 52.

Emmbrook also ran out winners in a midweek fixture with Royal Ascot, a knock of 45 from Matt Loxton gave Emmbrook a 7-wicket win.

All of Saturday’s matches were washed out.

May 8th to May 14th

Emmbrook’s 1st team did play on the Saturday away at Shinfield and claimed a 7-wicket victory, Andy Robertson 4-36 and Matt Loxton 65 the match winners.

Hurst and Finchampstead, went headto-head on the Saturday, with Finchampstead running out winners by 15 runs.

Binfield’s 2nd team played Eversley, Sean Ennis with 65 couldn’t stop Eversley winning by 7 wickets.

Wokingham’s 2nd team played away at Henley and won the tightest of matches by one run, thanks to Chis Peploe taking 5-20.

May 15th to May 21st,

Finchampstead and Binfield took to the field to face each other midweek, Predgen 41 and Frost 46 top scored for Finch and Boot 38 for Binfield. Finchampstead winning by 35 runs.

Both Wokingham’s First and Second teams had midweek fixtures.

The first team away at Crowthorne saw Conrad Martucci hitting an unbeaten 99 in a 97-run win.

The seconds winning away as well at Farley Hill, Shiv Muniyappa 51 and Jonathon Ferreira 45 with the runs in a 41run victory, backed up by Mahesh Bhandary 3-19 and Akshay Dhanda 3-10.

Earley’s midweek match was against the Verizon Vipers.

Aravind Gunruajan 34 and Venu Gudimetla 33 the run getters for Earley, Venu Pasikanti returning figures of 3-25 but the Viper still run out winners by 3 wickets.

Emmbrook had a midweek derby against Bracknell, Andy Lazenbury 38 and 2-32 was the match winner for a 5-wicket victory for Emmbrook.

Hurst’s Saturday fixture saw them take on Reading, Max Carroll top scored with 56, but Reading won by 7 wickets.

Emmbrooks CC. The first team played Crowthorne at home. Andy Lazenbury 57 and an unbeaten 53 from David Healey proved too much for Crowthorne, Emmbrook winning by 39 runs.

The seconds were away at Denham. Ravi Balakrishan 62 and Adrian Trueman 34 not out helped Emmbrook to a 5-wicket win, Rahul Soni 4-37 being the pick of the bowlers.

Wokingham CC. The first team playing away at Slough came away with a 3-wicket win, a 67 from Jayden Barson on debut and Callum Creighton with 4-52 the leading players.

The second team were soundly beaten by Falkland at home by 153 runs, Salman Khalid the best Wokingham bowler with 4-53.

Finchampstead CC. The first team were beaten at High Wycombe by Three wickets, Toby Albert top scored for Finch with 60.

The seconds were well beaten by Sulhamstead & Ufton at home by 85 runs, Mark Laithwaite with 3-26 the best bowler for Finch.

Woodley travelled to Mortimer on Saturday and gained a 24-run victory, Pradeep Kadloor 54 and Tajdar Jawaid 45 the leading scorers.

Earley’s first team were away at Reading, Aravind Gururajan with 36 could not stop Reading winning by 8 wickets.

The second team played Farley Hill at home, and with Livingston Raj 46 runs, Earley won by 24 runs.

Binfield CC The first team were at home to Cove. Daniel Humphrey top scoring with 77 but Binfield went down by 96 runs.

The second team were at Royal Ascot, Stephen Jeffery with 77 giving Binfield a 2-wicket win.

May 22nd to May 28th

Wokingham’s midweek second team came off second best to local rivals Bracknell, being bowled out for 93, Shiv Muniyappa (32) top scorer chasing Bracknell’s 135 all out, losing by 42 runs.

The first team played on Thursday away at Finchampstead and came away with a 22-run win, Anthony Clapham (79) and Jacob Clark (62) opening stand of 117 getting the bulk of the 185 runs, then restricting Finch to 163-6 of their 20 overs.

Emmbrook and Bearwood midweek first team went down at Sandhurst by 4 wickets, Adrian Trueman (49) the leading scoring in Emmbrooks 119-7 off 20 overs was never enough as Sandhurst reached their total with 12 balls to spare,Andy Cobb (2-8) with the best bowling figures.

Earley’s midweek fixture saw them travel to Checkendon, Aravind Guruajan (37) and Venu Gudimetla helped Earley reach 141-9 off their 20 overs. Ahtesham Abbasi (3-14) leading the bowling attack to keep Checkendon relay to 112-8, Earley winning by 29 runs.

Wokingham CC The firsts at home to Harefield won by two wickets, Shaan Khan (56) gave Wokingham a total of 199-8 chasing Harefield’s 195 all out, with Max Uttley (3-23) and Shaan Khan (3-37) leading the bowling.

The seconds won a low scoring match at Uxbridge, Bowling out Uxbridge for 101, Finn Catherwood-Smith (4-40) and Jacob Clark (4-22). Wokingham in reply knocking off the runs in just over 24 overs, Jacob Clark (34) top scoring for a 5-wicket win.

Emmbrook and Bearwood first team had a convincing win at Braywood, Matt Loxton (43) and Sean Woodward (41) got Emmbrook to 182 all out off 42 overs.

Tom Stevenson (3-13) and Charlie Sawyer (3-21) wiped out the Braywood top order for just 25, before Andy Lazenbury finished the game off with (3-6) giving Emmbrook a 98-run win.

The second team entertained Hurley at home. Emmbrook were in early trouble and had youngsters Harry Sweetnam (13) and under 13 Batsman Connor Simpson (27) to thank for their total of 99 all out. Hurley made short work of the reply, taking just over 17 overs to reach the target and win by 6 wickets.

Hurst lost at home to Harpsden by 7 wickets. Hurst bowled out for 117 runs, Lewis Smith (26), Harpsden taking just 25 overs to past the winning total to win by Seven wickets.

Binfield’s first team played Slough away, S.Negus ( 82) top scoring in Binfield 260-7.A.Arnold (4-29 ) helped to bowl out Slough for 129 for a 131-run win.

The seconds played Wargrave at home. Batting first, Wargrave reached 216-7 off their 45 overs. In reply Binfield reach the winning total with just two balls to spare S.Ennis (51) top scoring to win by two wickets.

Finchampstead CC The first team were well beaten at Banbury, Chasing Banbury massive 285-6, Samm Daniel (349), Finch were bowled out for just 116, Thomas Predgen (39), losing by 169 runs.

The seconds lost away at Reading.

Finch batting first posted 195 -7 off their 50 overs, D Patel (51*). Reading replied with 199-9, M Laithwaite (4-42) off 36.4 overs to win by one wicket.

Earleys first team played Checkendon at home on Saturday. Checkendon batted first and reached 208 all out off 39.3 overs, Bhargav Sutapalli (5-53) the leading wicket taker. Earley could only reply with 148 all out, Venu Gudimetla (49) to lose by 60 runs

The seconds were away at Twyford & Ruscombe. Winning the toss Twyford batted first and hit a huge 311-4 off 40 overs, Earley were then bowled out for just 79 runs, to lose by 232 runs

May 29th to May 31st continues from page 32

Wokingham’s 2nds midweek team kicked off the week fixtures, with a trip to Eversley in the Knockout Cup Quarter Final.

Eversley won the toss and elected to bat first, some tight bowling from Mahesh Bhandary (2-23) and Ranjeet Sidhu (2-11) kept the score down to 151 off 20 overs. Wokingham quickly lost their first wicket on 5, but Chinmay Kulkarni (16) and Arnav Kulkarni kept the run rate up with a stand of 40, once Chinmay Kulkarni fell, Jonathon Ferrira came in a scored a quick fire 69* putting on 109 runs with Arnav Kulkarni to reach the winning score with 34 balls remaining for an 8-wicket win.

On Wednesday it was Wokingham’s 1st midweek team to play their quarter final tie in the Knockout Cup against Binfield.

Binfield won the toss and elected to bat first and were very soon in early trouble with Finn Catherwood (3-17) taking two wickets with his first three balls in the second over, leaving Binfield at 10-2. More tight bowling and a run out kept Binfield to a score of 136 -7 off their 20 overs.

A 52 run opening stand between Anthony Clapham (42) and Jacob Clark (20), set Wokingham’s reply off at a cracking pace, before Michael Cowdells 43 off just 27 balls saw Wokingham over the line 29 balls left for a 5-wicket win.

Emmbrook also had a Quarter Final against Reading.

Batting first, Reading reached 158-7 off their 20 overs, Emmbrook in reply fell short of victory by 18 runs with just 140-7 off their 20 overs.

Each player was awarded a trophy for their efforts this season, with extra awards such as the Player’s Player, A1 Spirit Award and Manager’s Player also being given out for each team to recognise specific players and their contributions to their teams.

Not only was there awards up for grabs, but there was also a delicious barbeque and plenty of games for the kids to indulge in, such as an inflatable shooting challenge, run by Core Football Academy, as well as bouncy castles and much more!