O'Connor stars again but 2nds' woe goes on

DOM O'Connor continued his rich vein of form with 84 as Horspath 2nd went down to a seven-wicket defeat at Twyford in their Cherwell League Division 1 bottom-of-the-table battle. The Horspath opener, who had hit back-to-back centuries in his previous two innings, looked on course for another ton after the visitors elected to bat first. He was moving within sight of a third straight hundred after hitting two sixes and nine fours in his 134-ball knock when he was caught behind off Zabihullah Saeed. O'Connor shared in a second-wicket stand of 96 with Jehan Mohammed (36) as Horspath closed on 217-5 from their 50 overs. However, Twyford got off to a flying start in reply as Shahid Mahmood, with 75 from 102 balls, which included 13 fours, and Adam Bone (43) put on 133 for the first wicket. Skipper Mark Skelton (1-31) and off-spinner James Earnshaw (1-33) bowled tidy ten-over spells each to slow the run rate. But Atif Ali (42) then took the home side to the brink of victory, which was secured at 219-3 with 8.3 overs to spare. Asad Rafiq took the other wicket to fall. Horspath 3rd slipped to a seven-wicket defeat at Bletchley Town in a fiery Division 4 clash. The visitors were bowled out for 138 after being put in to bat with only Nigel Coltman (30) making any impact as Ricardo Brown took 5-27. Asad Mahmood then hit an unbeaten 72 to steer Bletchley home at 139-3. Paul Hicks hammered 66 and young Alfie Turner shone with bat and ball as Horspath 4th claimed a three-wicket win at home to Cublington 2nd in Division 7. Chasing Cublington's 171 all out after putting the visitors in to bat, Horspath were soon in trouble at 2-2. They stuttered to 38-4, before Hicks and Turner (30) put on 86 for the fifth wicket to turn the game. Harvey Shorter then weighed in with 25 as Horspath got home at 172-7 off 41 overs. Alfie Turner (4-20) had earlier mopped up the tail in Cublington's innings, while David Wells picked up 3-23, and there were two wickets for Trevor Spindler and one for Charlie Turner. David Vilojeans top-scored for the visitors with 56.

Posted by: Russ