For the first time in its history the Bowness Trophy was held at East Woodhay’s home in East End as the “neighbours from North Hampshire” played host to Newbury, Thatcham and Falkland on Sunday 13 August.
The first semi-final was between Woodhay and Newbury, batting first the Woodhay openers of George Walters and Richard Dando set off at a gallop reaching 139 for the first wicket when Walters fell for an impressive 73, Barnaby Talbot-Williams failed to make his ground as he was run out for a single, Dando was caught off the bowling of Newbury skipper Kevin Mills for 67 as Woodhay reached 150-3 in the 15th over, some hard hitting by Oli Batchelor in his quickfire 34, ably supported by Toby Talbot-Williams 11* and Fergus Mitchell 1* took the Woodhay total to an impressive 202-4 off 20 overs.
The pick of the Newbury bowlers being Mills 4-0-41-4
Newbury’s response got off to the worst possible start as they struggled with the consistency of Alan Williams and the movement of Dando, losing 5 wickets for 9 runs as the batsmen seemed to think hitting the ball to Walters at long-on was a workable idea, it wasn’t as he took two good catches to dismiss Manners for 4 and Sat Pal for 0 whilst Williams bowled Sastry and Kaxe for 0 each and Sam Clements caught Sengupta for 4 off the bowling of Dando.
From this point Newbury were batting for pride only and some resistance from Singh and Sawant took the score to 60 when Sawant was bowled by Clements for 19, Singh followed for 26 stumped by Adam Barnes off the bowling of Batchelor, the same pair dismissed Kingston for 0 when Barnes took the catch and Mills was bowled by B Talbot-williams for 6 it left the last pair in with the score on 74-9 , a brief flurry from Selvam and Gericke to ok the Newbury inning to 85 when Selvam was stumped by Barnes off Talbot-Williams for 4 leaving Gericke marooned on 8, Newbury 85 all out and a victory for Woodhay by 117 runs.
The successful Woodhay bowlers were Williams 2-1-4-4, Talbot-Williams 1.3-0-2-2, Batchelor 1-0-2-2, Dando 1-0-5-1 and Clements 3-0-22-1
The second semi-final saw Falkland play Thatcham, batting first Falkland made a sedate start losing skipper Elliott Seddon for 3 caught by Ben Denton-Powell off the bowling of Olly Thorne, Connor Wardlow was then caught by Thornes off the bowling of Sam Dillaway for 13 as Falkland slipped to 25-2, Ben Piper and Brandon Gilmour took them to 67 before Piper perishes to the bowling of Chris Bird for 22, Martin Cooper went for 8, caught by Mike Klichowicz off the bowling of Rhys Lewis, returning to the Thatcham fold before heading of with the England Young Lions, Gilmour and ex Woodhay/Thatcham/Hungerford stalwart, Duncan Johnson took the total to 121-5 when Gilmour was caught by Lewis off the bowling of Harvey Mackay for a well-made 46, Jason Williams was stumped by Simon Lewis off Tommy Mather’s bowling for 3 and Aaron Graham was bowled by Tommy Mather for 1, it was left to Johnson 13* and Matt Bond 3* to see the Falkland innings to a conclusion at 135-7 off 20 overs.
The Thatcham bowlers all took wickets and their figures were; Mackay 4-0-20-2, Bird 4-0-18-1, Thorne 2-0-18-1, Dillaway 2-0-21-1, Lewis 4-0-25-1 and Mather 4-0-26-1.
The Falkland total was by no means insurmountable but the Thatcham reply never really got started as they lost Klichowicz for 3, R Lewis for 5 and Denton-Powell for 4 with the total at 33-3, resistance from Simon Lewis 31 and Mackay 44 took them close but never quite close enough, Mather was run out for 6 and it was left to Paul Reeves 4* and Josh Reeves 1* to see out the innings as Thatcham closed on 116-6, losing by 19 runs.
The successful Falkland bowlers being; Gilmour 4-1-10-3, Bond 3-0-18-1 and Williams 3-0-24-1
This set up an East Woodhay v Falkland final for the fourth consecutive time with the host looking to secure a fourth win in a row.
Batting first again Woodhay once more looked for a fast start but the accurate bowling of Bond and Razon Dash kept things quiet and Walters was caught by Johnson off the bowling of Gilmour for 16, B Talbot-Williams was bowled by Gilmour for 5, T Talbot-Williams was bowled by Johnson for 9 who then bowled Joe Lawrance first ball to set up a hat trick chance with the score on 84-4. This chance was spurned as he threw down a leg side wide!! Jug avoidance at its best!!
All the while Dando was accumulating runs at the other end, he was then caught by Piper off the bowling off Bond for a very well crafted 66 with the Woodhay score on 112-5, Batchelor fell to Gilmour for 7 and Mitchell was caught by Dash for 6 another Gilmour victim, who completed his fifer when he bowled Williams for 0, this left Woodhay skipper Adam Barnes and Stan Doyle to see out the overs as they finished 24 and 4 not out respectively as the Woodhay innings closed on 151-8
The pick of the Falkland bowlers being Gilmour 4-0-26-5 ably supported by Johnson 4-0-22-2 and Bond 4-0-30-1
A decent total but one that a strong Falkland team would have felt within their grasp, but they started badly with Connor Wardlaw clipping the first ball of the innings to Clements at backward square leg, who pouched it with glee, Seddon was then caught and bowled by Dando for 3 and Piper tried to hit the ball over Walters at long-on with the same result as the Newbury batters and was out for 7, Falkland teetering at 17-3. Williams was spectacularly caught by Mitchell at deep square leg for 0 off the bowling of Clements. And when Dando caught Gilmour for 15 again off Clements Falkland were all ends up at 31-5.
Martin Cooper lost his stumps to Walters and the same bowler claimed Charlie Mabbatt LBW for 0, Johnson was caught Barnes, bowled Clements for 0 the score was 34-8 and Falkland were staring into the abyss.
Aaron Graham and Matt Bond added some respectability but when Graham was bowled by B Talbot-Williams for 8 and Razon Dash was caught and bowled by the same bowler the game was over with Falkland all out for 63 in 13.2 overs, a victory for the host by 88 runs and the Bowness Trophy will stay in North Hampshire once more.
Sam Clements 3-0- 5-3, Talbot-Williams 1.2-0-8-2, George Walters 2-0-11-2, Alan Williams 4-0-16-2 and Richard Dando 2-0-7-1 the successful wicket takers.
A tremendous day of club cricket came to a conclusion when Falkland’s Director of Cricket, Graham Beal presented Woodhay Skipper Adam Barnes with the trophy
Thank you to all the players, families and supporters who made it a special event, celebrating a longstanding local competition