Division Three: Ickenham 212 For 7 Drew With Bessborough 206 For 7

HAVING been put into bat by bottom of the table Bessborough, sensible batting saw Ickenham set a reasonable target in the 53 overs before declaring.

Keith Waller top scored with a good 47 in the total of 212 for 7.

Bessborough slumped to 61 for 4 in reply after 14 overs, and Ickenham looked as though they were closing in on a valuable victory.

However, they were thwarted by half centuries from Whitson and Botha added to some poor catching as Bessborough climbed to 176 for 5. This left them requiring 37 runs to wins from the final 11 overs.

But then in the space of three overs the game changed yet again as Bee-borough crashed to 181 for 9 thanks to a hostile spell from David Gibson.

However, in the final eight overs Ickenham could not force the victory and Bessborough took the winning draw still six runs short of their target.

Ickenham 2nds had to settle for a losing draw in their match with Barnes.

Despite some good defensive bowling by Steve Room (5-74) and young Chris Lupton (3-49) Barnes compiled their total of 236 for 9 quite easily during their 52 overs confident of bowling Ickenham out again as previously in the season.

A good start by Budd (33) and a quickfire 32 from Patel, complemented a solid knock by Cook.

However, the brittle nature of the Ickenham batting showed again and a nervous last few overs saw them hang on nine wickets down and 45 runs short.

Undefeated league leaders Richmond came to Ickenham 3rds full of confidence but struggled against some accurate bowling to set a challenging total making 229 for 7. Tremendous batting by Mannick (71) and Houghton gave Ickenham the confidence to pull off a sensational win.

Unfortunately, wickets kept falling as the total became touchable as Richmond held their nerve keeping spin-ners on and finally achieving victory with Ickenham just six runs short with 10 balls remaining at 223.

A defiant 104 by captain Richard Crompton batting at seven nearly saw the 4ths pull off a rare victory, but finished credibly 13 runs short at 176-9 with one wicket remaining against Hornsey 189-4

Fine attacking batting by Budd 98, Smith 62 and finally Cooper 50 not out saw Ickenham set an impressive total of 257 for 6.

Thanks to good bowling Cockfosters were dismissed with three overs remaining still 45 runs short.

Dean Waller 4-52 was the pick of the bowlers.

On Sunday Ickenham lost by 249 runs to Watford.

It was a complete mismatch of a game thanks to Watford playing five 1st Xl players, including their overseas player, and then batting them in the top five in a league predominantly for development squads of young colts,

Watford made 433 for 7 in their 45 overs and Ickenham replied with 184 but had some satisfaction in 17-year-old Ed Houghton making a brilliant undefeated 104.