Blincoe Cup latest

Beard hits another ton

Four matches, eight sets of innings and loads of runs - that was the essence of the weekend’s Blincoe Cup cricket.

Finch Hill’s Eddie Beard had a successful time at the wicket when he scored another century, as his side faced Castletown in their tie down at King William's College.

Castletown had to bat first and although they scored steadily, no single batsmen came out of the pack and they scored 148 for 5 from their 16 eight-ball overs.

Sam Barnett took a couple of wickets for 12 runs from his two overs.

Finch Hill’s first attempt at the crease was less distinguished than that of their opposition.

This was thanks to some good bowling by Jeff Butler and Nick Arculus, both of whom took wickets for not many runs.

Finch Hill ended on 124 for 9.

They returned after the lunch break to bat for the second time, and Castletown struggled to contain Eddie Beard and George Burrows as they approached the bowling in an aggressive way.

Eddie scored 105 not out from 69 balls and George 74 from 53 balls as Finch Hill finished with 196 for 1 from the 16 overs.

Castletown needed 173 for victory, but no batsman was able to escape the twenties and they finished with 132 for 4, meaning Finch Hill won by 40 runs.

Ramsey faced a good all-round side from Peel and St Johns (PSJ), who decided to field first.

Ramsey regularly lost wickets due to good team bowling, but Conor Kenan and Alex Williamson were the pick, with two and three wickets respectively.

Ramsey ended with 110 on the board.

It was then time for Peel and St John’s to bat.

Ramsey bowled well this time, with three bowlers - Braden Birchall, Tom Moffatt and Jon Gower- Jackson - doing well.

PSJ were reduced to 45 for 5 before Ollie Webster, batting further down the order, produced another 55-run cameo from 30 balls.

They scraped together 119 runs before they were all out.

PSJ were soon batting once again, but this time Ramsey did not let them off the hook and, despite 38 runs from Juan Bellando, they were all out for 92.

Tom Moffatt took two wickets for 12 runs.

With Ramsey needing 102 to take the tie, Will Ward and the veteran Tom Reader scored 28 and 39, respectively, as the total was surpassed in the final over.

Ramsey won by six wickets.

Crosby and Valkyres met again, but this was not to be the close game of the previous week.

Crosby batted first and Valkyres did not bowl well, as Simon Callister and Danny Kniveton settled quickly into their stride.

Danny batted very well for his 77; he barely gave a snifter of a chance throughout his innings until he was well caught in the deep by Paul Fleming.

Richard added to the woe with a quick 38 and Crosby finished with 183 runs.

Valkyres' batsmen tried to smash everything out of the ground but the good bowling, especially by young Joe Humphrey (3 for 16), prevented that and they ended with 128 for 9.

Second time around, everything was much calmer, with ones and twos being taken and the score was soon at 10 runs an over.

Two quick wickets then slowed the tempo, but that brought Arun Mahalingam to the crease.

He finished on 70 not out (which included two massive sixes) and the target for Crosby was a reasonable 127 to win.

Crosby suffered a slight disquiet when Andy Coulson took two wickets in quick succession, but Richard Tarr was there again to quickly snuff out any chance of a win for Valkyres by scoring 49 not out and Crosby won by seven wickets.

Crosby’s other team took on Cronkbourne in Tromode.

They batted first and put up a reasonable total of 149 for 6.

Floris Venter top-scored with 28 runs, as young Theo Helfrich took two wickets once again in his two overs.

Cronkbourne responded with a formidable 182 for 7.

Corbin Liebenberg opened the batting and scored 40.

The other batsmen contributed but Nathan Knights demonstrated his powerful style by scoring 42 not out.

His innings was certainly quickfire, hitting four fours and three sixes in 15 balls.

Cronkbourne batted again and amassed 144 runs from their 16 overs.

Nathan again top-scored with 48 before he was caught by Carl Hartmann off the bowling of Glen Geeves.

Ben Dougherty was the pick of the Crosby bowlers with four wickets for just seven runs.

Crosby needed to score 178 to win the match, but Theo Helfrich quickly took the wicket of Shaun Grobbelaar and soon they were struggling.

Wickets continued to fall and at one point, they were 32 for 5 before they started to recover.

Mike Callister top-scored with 28 but Crosby were all out for 110 and Cronkbourne won by 67 runs.