Foxton II were involved in a thrilling tied match with Chippenham at home on Saturday. Home skipper Tom Williams lost the toss and Foxton were put into bat on a good if a little damp and spongy pitch.

Foxton got off to a great start with opening batsmen Ben Howlett and Chris Hoole working well in tandem. Both batsmen were watchful in defence, especially against Chippenhams opening bowler Rattley who was generating plenty of swing and movement off the seam. Yet despite this, Foxton rattled along at well over 4 runs an over, as both Howlett and Hoole in particular punished anything short or wide. With the score on 56, Howlett was caught out sweeping for 12 off the bowling of Stoute. This brought Watson to the crease who was into his scoring immediately. Chris Hoole continued to score fluently until he was clean bowled by Stoute in the 20th over for a very well played 52. (8 fours) This brought the ever present and stand in wicketkeeper for the day, Lionel Griffin out to bat. In his usual fashion, Griffin set about dominating the Chippenham bowling attack. He and Watson pushed up the run rate further with some authoratative stroke making and well run singles. This continued until the 28th over when Watson became Stoute's 3rd and final wicket of the day, falling for a quickfire 18. His departure gave a George Dean an opportunity and he duely took it. He continued on the fashion of the previous 3 batsmen being aggressive and running hard between the wickets. They combined for a 50 run partnership in only 9 overs as Griffin began to cut loose. Dean was caught out for 12 in the 37th over trying to accelerate the run rate further. With just 3 overs left Williams (12) and Jarvis (7 not out) did a great job of supporting Griffin who scored an excellent 67 not out (7 fours) and pushing Foxton to their highest score of the season. 204 for 5 of 40 overs.

Defending such a large total, Foxton began the second innings full of confidence that they could push towards another win and a step closer to promotion. Tim Lee opened the bowling from the church end and was his usual economical self. He bowled his 10overs through, and finished with figures of 10-2-29-0. Manners on the other hand struggled for line and length for much of his first spell. Manners was replaced by Ben Howlett in the 14th over and he proceeded to bowl a good line and length, to thwart the opening pair for Chippenham from really accelerating the scoring. Howlett finished with figures of 10-2-47-0. The skipper held himself back for later in the game and he claimed his first and foxton's first wicket in the 25th over when G. Dean held onto a very good catch in the deep. Thus dismissing Bowen for 4 runs short of his half century. 6overs later Williams and Dean combined again to dismiss Saddler. The introduction of Watson in the 24th over brought immediate reward as Brown skied the ball, and Manners ran in from the long off boundary to take a brilliant (If I do say so myself) running diving catch. Despite this clatter of wickets, Foxton found themselves needing the wickets to keep the run rate down as Chippenham were moving up through the gears. Owen Pow, was brought on in the 37th over and claimed 2 wickets in his first over as he had first Dore caught by Hoole and then Waither caught by Jarvis in the deep. This set up the last 3 overs to be a tense tight affair. Manners was reintroduced, and he again struggled with line as he bowled back-to-back wides. However, a super bit of fielding by Rob Jarvis resulted in the run out of Chippenham's opening batsmen S. Heather for 90. Thats what happens when you take on one of the clubs finest fielders!! Pow's 2nd over conceeded only 4 runs, giving Chippenham a target of 5 runs off the last over to win and 4 runs to tie. Manners was given the responsibility of holding the opposition at bay. A dot ball and a wicket in the first 2 balls meant Chippenham needed a run a ball to tie. A single off the third ball followed by another crucial dot and another single meant 3 runs were needed off the last ball. A drilled shot to deep mid off and the batsmen were able to scamper the 2 runs needed to tie the game.

A great allround performance by a Foxton side that put everything into this game and a very good result when considering that Chippenham won the previous encounter by a comfortable 100 runs.

Next Foxton 2nd XI game is gonna be a good one

Sorry for the rambling!!