Holders Horsham bow out to Bromley

Cockspur Cup holders Horsham crashed out of the 2006 competition at the Group Final stage, with the West Sussex outfit soundly beaten by Bromley.

Fifteen of the 16 Group Finals were played on Sunday, with the Scottish Final to be played on Thursday July 6 between Ayr and Clydesdale.

The match at Horsham had expected to be a close affair and a large crowd congregated, only to witness a very poor batting display from the home side. Early inroads were made by Joey Benjamin and Michael Bluett and Horsham were quickly 18 for four.

Luke Marshall, the Horsham captain, then tried to set about repairing the damage but desperately needed someone to stay with him. There was some initial help from Sam Attfield (25) as the score was taken to 70 but the rest of the Horsham batsmen played some injudicious strokes and wickets continued to tumble.

Marshall was ninth out for a valiant 49 but Horsham were dismissed in only 27 overs for 121. Michael Bluett, normally the Bromley 2nd XI opening bowler, finished with 5-43 from his nine-over spell.

This score was never going to prove taxing on such an excellent wicket and Bromley cruised to a nine-wicket victory in only 19 overs with Nadeem Shahid scoring an undefeated 50.

Elsewhere there were a number of very big partnerships with teams setting some challenging targets for their opponents to chase. The closest match had to be the game played at Havant where the hosts were restricted to 175 for nine by visitors Reading.

David Hartley ripped out the Havant middle order with a devastating spell of 4-19. Havant needed to make early inroads to restrict the Reading reply and this was duly achieved by Richard Pineo’s opening burst while David Barnes opening the Reading innings batted well with little early support in scoring 54.

Richard Hindley then took 4-40 as Reading were reduced to 135 for eight and then 152 for nine. Sixteen-year-old Luke Beaven then steered Reading towards the victory target and the last over was reached with three needed to win. Pineo bowled a leg-side wide on the first ball – the next two deliveries were then right in the blockhole with the last crashing into Beaven’s stumps to give Havant victory by one solitary run with four balls to spare.

York hosted Doncaster Town and batted first. Captain Stephen Piercy (66) and Dan Broadbent (60) added 119 for the first wicket in 22 overs. This solid base was then improved upon by the rest of the batsmen with Alex Collins leading the charge with 74 not out to the final total of 281 for seven.

Doncaster in reply regularly lost wickets and the much-needed partnership never materialised and they were finally dismissed for 216, while in the north east South Northumberland overcame the challenge of Gateshead Fell.

In two of the three north west groups there was a slightly different picture with low scores. Lytham bowled Fleetwood out for only 104 and eased to a victory by seven wickets. Bowdon scored 156 for eight at Bootle with Crozier scoring 50. Firwood Bootle in reply looked in trouble at 97 for seven, but recovered to win by three wickets with Cockbain and Warren both scoring 35 not out.

The final match in this area saw the surprise packet of this year’s competition, Bamford Fieldhouse of the Saddleworth League, win convincingly at Huyton. This is their first appearance in the competition and they have reached the last 16!

The two midlands groups saw some more high-scoring with Barnt Green, last year’s runners-up, scoring 313 for eight against Moseley. The basis for this was an opening partnership of 188 between Richard Hall (100) and Gavin Shepherd (96) in only 24 overs.

In reply, Moseley set off at a great rate led by Wasim Khan (Warwickshire, Sussex and Derbyshire), who scored 78 off only 38 balls. However, nobody managed to stay with him and when he departed the score was 125 for four. Moseley weren’t helped by their poor over rate that meant that they had two overs docked from their allocation and were eventually dismissed for 223.

Caythorpe enjoyed the biggest opening partnership of the day when Sam Ogrizovic (110) and Paul Riley (74) put on 201. Caythorpe scored 276 for five and West Indian Cavaliers chased hard but eventually fell 17 runs short. This sets up a repeat of last year’s semi-final with Barnt Green again hosting Caythorpe.

The top two teams in the West of England Premier League met at Frocester where Bath were the visitors. Frocester, with their phalanx of ex-Gloucestershire players, set a stiff challenge when posting 283 for five – with another big opening partnership, this time of 183 between Nick Trainor (151) and Paul Lazenbury (87). In reply, Ben Staunton scored 53 for Bath and Nick Trainor took 3-13 as the visitors were dismissed for only 184.

Taunton St Andrews made the long trip to Cornwall to play St Just and were in some disarray at 84 for five. Ashley Grundy scored 65 as they recovered to 198 all out. St Just looked to be struggling at 51 for three until Gary Thomas (79 not out) and Gareth May (81 not out) added an unbroken 148 for the fourth wicket as St Just won by seven wickets. They now have to make the long trip to Frocester on July 16.

Simon Hole (80) scored runs again for Oxford as they made 231 for nine against Ealing. The visitors then had a 113-run partnership for their second wicket as they eased past this target for the loss of only five wickets.

Brondesbury travelled to Chingford with more success. Batting first Jason Molins’ (55) good work was counteracted by some suicidal running as four batsmen were run out. Rob Nelson, at number nine, score 40 not out as 115 for seven was turned into a respectable 217 for nine. Chingford were never in the hunt as they were bowled out for 118.

A similar scenario was played out at Blackheath where Wanstead batted first and scored 204 and Blackheath only managed 98 in reply.

At Bushy Park, Jamie Wade (104) led the way for Teddington as they scored 253 for seven. Brighton & Hove started well adding 88 for the first wicket until Simon Weale broke the partnership. He then went on to take 5-17 in eight overs as Brighton subsided to 162 all out.

Cockspur Cup 2006 - 6th Round Draw (40 KB)