TUCKER PREMIER DIV. 1

Foxton 1st XI 171 (38.2 overs)   Wisbech 1st XI 115 (35 overs)

Jeffery Douglas bowling on his home track pushed Foxton into the top half of the table for the first time this season with another excellent performance to overcome Wisbech. Batting first on a wicket, along with overhead conditions, giving assistance to the opening visitors bowlers runs were not easy to find, nonetheless Foxton's openers Antonnel Atwell and Cei Sanderson managed a useful stand of 46 before the latter fell l.b.w. to first change bowler Ben Allsopp for 11. Home skipper Lawrence Farnum then joined Atwell and together they picked up the tempo until the opener was caught close in for a well played 34 leaving Foxton at 76-2. Peter Moor now batting lower at four immediately looked more comfortable and with his skipper they notched several boundaries in a stand of 42, but, attempting another maximum Farnum was caught in the deep for 34. Moor was looking set for a big score when he was another caught on the boundary for a very stylish 44 off the bowling of the newly introduced spinner Gary Freear. Foxton still looked set at 141-3 for a useful total with the best part of 20 overs remaining, but Freear had other ideas and his impressive haul of 4.2-1-15-5 polished off most of the middle and lower order batsmen and the home side were dismissed for a disappointing 171 from only 38.2 overs.

Having chased down much larger totals against their hosts over the past three seasons Wisbech felt fairly confident of a repeat, aided by the extra nine overs allowed to them. They were rapidly pegged back by Douglas however with his hostile opening spell in which he claimed opener Simon Freear and number three David Wood cheaply, and with Tom Stone having the other opener Ivan Burgess well caught by Sanderson the visitors stumbled to 38-3. Douglas went on to york Ben Allsopp for two and their hopes now rested on county regulars Gary Freear and James Williams, but these were soon dashed as they lost the former to Douglas trapped l.b.w. for two. Williams looked strong as he began to find boundaries and was supported by Sam Albutt with 14. But the paceman was not to be denied and he then forced Williams to play on for 24 in his tenth over to leave Wisbech struggling on 71-6. The tiring Douglas with match winning figures of 13-3-42-5 was then replaced by Atwell who finished off the tail with 6-2-7-3 supported by Stone 2-32 to see Foxton comfortably home by 56 runs.

Next week Foxton are at home to Khalsa, whilst the 2nd XI are away to Dullingham.

The Norfolk/Cambs area final of the Persimmon Village Cup at Longstanton Grasshoppers on Sunday was unfortunately rained off, Foxton now have home advantage next week.

Barry McCulloch - 12/06/2011