Hurst and Whittaker steal the show at Britwell Salome

Sunday 23rd August

Harpsden travelled to Britwell Salome on a particularly warm day and after winning the toss Harpsden decided to have a bat on a pitch that looked to have a lot of runs in it.
Kaufman and Bird bowled tidily for the first few overs and beat the bat on several occasions. A. Birkett fell for 6 to Kaufman and this bought the in-form Adam Hurst to the wicket. Opener Sweet and Hurst proceeded to score at a rapid rate finding the boundary on a number of occasions including several big sixes. Both batsmen reached their half centuries before Sweet fell to Granger. Captain Andrew Norton scored a quick fire 40, 32 of which came from boundaries, before the patient Luxford finally took his wicket. Whittaker was next to go and was unlucky in his dismissal as the ball seemed to keep very low thus leading to him being given out LBW to Luxford. Nugent came to the crease and alongside Hurst took the Harpsden total to 246. Hurst bought up his fine century with a straight 6 and finished unbeaten on 100 as Harpsden declared before tea.
Harpsden opened up with seam at one end and spin at the other. Heath charged in trying to get something out of the wicket and beat the bat on a few occasions but had little luck finding the breakthrough. Welford bowled several tidy overs and tested the batsmen with his off-spinners from the other end.
The Britwell Salome opening partnership of Luxford and Herrington got their side’s innings off to a patient but solid start and seemed confident in chasing down the target score. Luxford went on to make 41 before the left arm seam of Ed Birkett got the better of him. Unfortunately for the home side a batting collapse helped by some good bowling from Harpsden, particularly Whittaker’s leg-spin, saw the game move into Harpsden’s favour. Herrington provided stiff resistance and continued to score runs before he fell to the guile of Whittaker for a well crafted 57. No one else in the Britwell batting order could muster double figures and with Hurst taking his batting form into the field with a superb run-out and two spectacular catches, Britwell’s fate was all but sealed. Whittaker and Nugent cleaned up the Britwell tail for 142, Whittaker finishing with deserved figures of 5-45.


Harpsden

N. Sweet b Granger 51
A. Birkett b Kaufman 6
A. Hurst Not Out 100
A. Norton c Clarke b Luxford 40
I. Whittaker lbw Luxford 1
T. Nugent Not Out 26

Extras 21 (19b, 1lb, 1w)
Total 246 – 4



Britwell Salome

Luxford b E. Birkett 41
Herrington ct & b Whittaker 57
Griffiths ct E. Birkett b Whittaker 2
Jarman b Welford 7
Clark Run Out 3
Smith c Hurst b Whittaker 8
Clarke b Nugent 0
Penny b Whittaker 6
Granger b Nugent 2
Bird c Hurst b Whittaker 4
Kaufman Not Out 0

Extras 12 (6b, 1lb, 5w)
Total 142 All Out