The 1st XI entertained Burnham. With rain in the air and in the forecast skipper Roger Vessey felt that the best chance of a win was to bowl first, so upon winning the toss Chenies took to the field. Early wickets courtesy of Dave Brown kept the run rate at bay and after 26 overs Burnham were 65-4. However, their no. 6 batsman frustrated the home side, scoring an ugly and lucky 118. This was compounded by poor fielding, dropped catches and indifferent umpiring decisions and the Burnham innings ended on 237-8. Dave Brown’s 18 overs yielded 4 wickets at the cost of just 48 runs and Roger Vessey took 3-48. The Chenies chase got off to a quick start thanks to 20 from Charlie Anderson, but he was then dismissed. Ateeq Mohammed and Alex Martin re-built with a partnership of 100 before Ateeq was out for 56. 25 from Vid Mayadunne kept the innings flowing and Alex Martin was out for 68. So it was left to Majib Rehman (xx) and 47 from Harry Dahiya to steer us home with 2 overs to spare. A win based on some excellent bowling and batting, but which could have been much easier if the fielding had been better. It’s perhaps best not to mention the apparent abolition of the LBW rule!!!! The 1sts have now climbed to the top of the table with a 12 point gap versus 2nd place and crucially, a 33 point gap versus 3rd place (2 teams are promoted). With 6 games remaining, the push for promotion is definitely on.
The end of the month means monthly awards. The batting award was a no-brainer with Alex Martin having scored 306 runs in the month at an average of 102 including 2 tons and one half century. The bowling award was shared between Dave Brown (8 wkts and an economy rate of 3.7) and Roger Vessey (6 wkts and an economy rate of 2.9). Harry Dahiya, who won the Skipper’s award for June, forgot to bring the trophy back, so it was not awarded!!!

The seconds travelled to Beaconsfield and bowled first. Having got used to tight bowling thus far this season, this was a day we didn’t. 50 came off the first 5 overs and with dropped catches not helping we found ourselves chasing a daunting 244. With a very strong bowling attack, Beaconsfield reduced us to 25-4 leaving us batting for bonus points rather than victory and ended on 133. Notable performances were few; bowling wise, Emily’s second spell (6 overs for 29) along with Brian (40 from 9) and Max (54 off 10) – each with 2 wickets prevented Beaconsfield running away with it. Batting wise John Moffit scored an unbeaten 58, and helped by 15 from Tom Watson and 11 from Emily at the end got us from a potentially embarrassing no points score to the 133.

Strong availability this week meant the Sunday XI could arrange an extra fixture at home so we took on West London CC. They won the toss and elected to have a bat. Chenies bowled and fielded as well as we have all season and restricted West London CC to 149 for 8 off 40 overs. Ronald Eltringham had a good afternoon getting 3 for 18 off 8 overs. Tom Horsburgh had good figures of 3 for 30 off 8 overs. Emily Brown was naggingly accurate as ever bowling 7 overs for just 14 runs and 1 wicket and Shan Patel bowled 6 overs for 30. Well a target of 150 looked very achievable as the sun came out. As it turned out West London were more of a bowling side than a batting one. It soon became clear that it was going to be a tight game especially when they unleashed their fast bowler straight from the Surrey league. We steadily notched up runs with contributions from Mattie Brown (17), Brian Shipley (17), Ian Gilmour (15) and top scorer Mike Pickard (29). We finished on 139 all out, 11 runs short. Victory felt close but their powerful bowlers just won the day.
Next week the 1st XI travel to Hillingdon Manor and the 2s host Farnham Common. The Sunday XI have an away match at Uxbridge Casuals.

Colts Matches:
On Monday, a glorious summer evening, the U14s travelled to Bledlow Ridge and Ayman duly won the toss and elected to bat. Ayush and Shashank opened and had 15 runs on the board before Ayush was caught behind. Marley came in at 3 and raced into double figures before being bowled by a “slow” one and with Matthew finding scoring difficult, when he was out we were 51 for 3 thanks mainly to some sensible batting from Shashank. Kai came to the crease and got the run rate up and when Shashank was bowled for 22 we were 72 for 4 with 8 overs remaining. a score of 120 looked on the cards. Unfortunately we then had a mini collapse with Kai out for 13 and with neither Ayman or Pranaam troubling the scorer we were 72 for 7. Thankfully Gurleen and Emma managed to get the scoreboard moving again and with some help from Udit we reached 96 all out off 20 overs. Marley and Ayush opened the bowling but after an early success by Ayush, Bledlow raced to 24 for 1 after 4 overs. Matthew and Aayush then bowled a good line and length and coupled with some fine fielding, we only conceded 12 runs of the next 4 overs. Unfortunately our bowling deteriorated with 38 runs coming off the next 5 meaning that Bledlow only required some 20 runs off the last 6 overs and although Gurleen and Emma made scoring difficult with Gurleen taking 1 for 9 and Emma only conceding 6 runs of 2 overs, Bledlow reached the winning total with 2 overs to spare. A good effort all round with everyone making a contribution against a team with 3 or 4 quality players especially their wicket keeper who took 3 excellent catches. This turned to be the U14s final game of the season since, due to holidays, we couldn’t raise a team for the game v Amersham scheduled for 30th July

At Chenies on Tuesday the U16s entertained Ley Hill. The visitors batted first and scored 135-7 in their 20 overs. Key bowling performances were from Aidan Taylor (3-15) and Shan Patel (2-4), with Shan removing their dangerous no.3 who had made 61. Ben Cross and Mattie Brown also picked up a wicket apiece. A potentially intimidating target to chase but openers Alex Walker and Mattie Brown made light work of it, reaching the target without losing a wicket to win by 10 wickets inside 17 overs. Mattie scored 51 and Alex recorded his first ever half century with 70. A very impressive win!

Colts fixtures for the next week:
Colts fixtures have now finished as the holiday season gets into full swing. Thankyou to the managers and coaches for providing me with match reports and summaries for inclusion in the bulletin.
Congratulations to all that have taken part in matches across the age groups. There have been some tremendous successes which will be summarised in these pages in due course.
Colts sessions will continue throughout the summer, but your age group managers will be in touch regarding plans for each age group, and look out for news regarding plans for Colts Day which takes place on 8th September.

In other news:
Subscriptions – if you have not yet paid your annual subscription then please pay now

Prosecco Cricket is up and running for the season. Come along on Tuesdays from 8pm. It’s a fun way for women to get involved in cricket. It’s soft ball and a great keep fit session with a glass of Prosecco to finish. Roll up to play and £5 per session. Please spread the word! Julie Pickard looks forward to welcoming you all and any queries please get back to her (01494 762707, mgmpickard@icloud.com)
A