Donnington v Wherwell.

Wherwell travelled North to Donnington, a lovely setting though heavily affected by the bad weather.

The pitch, while flat was clearly going to present a challenge for batters and when the toss was won by the home side there was no surprise when they put Wherwell in.

Craig Beckingham and Jeremy Wickham made a slow but solid start under testing conditions, the outfield being slow meant boundaries were hard to find before Beckingham was first to depart for a gritty 17.

Stuart Taylor didn't take long to settle and once in to his stride the slowness of the outfield was bypassed as the first match ball was lost in a nearby field.

Wickham was content to play a supporting role and they took the score past 100 with Taylor reaching 50 with a six taken on the boundary only for the fielder to fall back over the line.

Taylor continued to dispatch the ball to all parts after Wickham departed for 35 but a brisk 17 from Alex Gladwyn kept the momentum flowing. There was no shock when Taylor bludgeoned a four through extra cover to bring up his 100 but this was followed by disbelief when the bowler slipped in delivery of the next ball and the resulting skidder found middle stump.

Some late strikes and good running from Nathan Young (12) and Paul Whyton (12no) saw Wherwell post a above par total of 208-7.

The Donnington response never really got going, opening the bowling for the first time Wherwell’s Babu off his shortened run had the home batters struggling to see the ball never mind score a run and he was rewarded with ten overs, 2-10.

T Oliver (16) and R Sheppherd (30) hit to the short boundary but fell to the ever improving bowling of Harry Trebert who bowled some unplayable balls in his six overs and took 2-29.

With the top four gone by drinks Donnington effectively shut up shop and looked to bat out 45 overs while Wherwell tried some options giving the leg spin duo of Gladwyn and Wickham a go and both got turn and bounce and wickets as a reward with Beckingham also chipping in with 1-8 as the result was never in doubt although unable to claim the full quota of bowling points as the home side edged their way to  129-8.