New City (MK) – 117 all out off 30.1 overs (5 points)
Great Horwood – 118 for 8 off 31.2 overs (25 points)
Great Horwood won their final game of the Four Counties Cricket League Division One season on Saturday and in the process relegated their hosts New City along with themselves, and the final league table shows both sides only needed to win one more game through the season to have stayed up. In a ten team division, the bottom half of the table were separated by just thirty-three points and with twenty-five points for a win the final positions reveal just how tight this league was but ultimately Horwood will start next season in Division Two.
The home side chose to bat first after winning the toss, and lost two early wickets when Josh Nix bowled Dharmesh Mistry for four, and Billy Harper skittled out Viral Shah without scoring to leave the hosts 6-2. Jay Singadia & Yash Tailor settled to add twenty-one to the score before Haydon Morrison caught Tailor off the bowling of stand-in skipper Dale Armitage, which triggered three wickets falling with no further runs being added.
Jacobus Barnard went for a golden duck, and Vishal Naik lasted just two balls ahead of being caught by Nix off the captain again; Singadia was then joined by Mihir Choksi and they added fourteen until the former was caught & bowled by the same bowler. Manjit Singh made 10 off eight balls before he was caught by Alex Gilder off Robby Taylor, but the home side then dug in and frustrated the Horwood bowlers.
Choksi and Jai Dave added 21 before Taylor trapped Choksi LBW on 22, Shalin Parikh came to the crease and a further 16 runs were added to the New City score until Dave was given LBW to Neil Taylor. The final wicket was the most difficult to remove, Parikh was joined by Jaco Theron and they made 28 till Theron was caught to end the innings. Armitage the best of the bowlers taking 4-28 off his nine overs.
Sam Willett & Haydon Morrison opened for Horwood and made 20 until they were both removed in successive overs by Jaco Theron & Jay Singadia respectively, bringing together Ken Cronshaw & Alex Gilder and their partnership was worth a superb 40 before the latter was bowled by Shalin Parikh, who proved to be the away sides top scorer with 26 which included five boundaries.
Just 4 runs later Cronshaw was caught by Vishal Naik but Dale Armitage was now in bat and keeping calm, Josh Nix was bowled on his second ball by Manjit Singh and Horwood were now 72-5, still forty-six runs short of their target. But the captain teamed up with Simon Ridgway and they were worth 24 between them till Ridgway was caught by Theron off Viral Shah with his score on twelve.
Billy Harper came to the crease and was to remain unbeaten, Armitage finally out when he was caught & bowled by Shah for 16, but his innings lasted fifty minutes which was more valuable to the result. Chris McStraw faced just two balls until he was trapped LBW by Shah, but Robby Taylor came out to pair up with Harper and the pair saw their side home with a partnership worth 11, Viral Shah the best of the City bowlers with 3-21 off his five overs.
Match scorecard: http://4ccl.play-cricket.com/website/results/3368486
Final League table: http://4ccl.play-cricket.com/website/websites/view_division?id=78263
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