.Nomads vs Ampney Crucis          Sunday 11^th April

Ampney win by 5 Wickets

After losing the toss on the opening day’s fixture Ampney took to the field on a cold and blustery afternoon, a lack of practise and preparation was optimised with Gilchrist receiving the first official warning of the season for fielding in his pyjamas having forgotten his whites.

Alleyne (57)  and Cox(53) batted with assurance putting on an opening partnership of 90 in 25 overs prior to Cox retiring having reached his 50.  Nomads batting display was restricted by the ever green duo of Keates and Wilson who once again showed there is no substitute  for experience bowling a combined 13 overs for 46 runs with the opposition looking to accelerate late in the innings, Wilson taking 2 wickets. 

With Ampney dropping 4 catches in the cold conditions Nomad were able to post a respectable 148 for 3.

In reply Ampney struggled to get going losing wickets at regular intervals with a combination of disciplined bowling and poor shot selection Ampney slipped to 72-5.  The arrival of Rutter (62no) and Wilson (35no) to the crease brought a sense of calm and class to the situation and with Nomads running out of people wanting to bowl  both batsmen punished any lose bowling to record an unbroken partnership of 77 to see Ampney to a 5 wicket win with 4 overs to Spare.

Ampney Crucis vs Lower Slaughter   Sunday 18th  April

Ampney win by 67 runs.

For the second week in succession Nick Littlechild lost the toss however this week Ampney were asked to have a bat on a glorious afternoon.

Slaughter bowled with early aggression determined to knock over Ampney’s batting line up using a variety of choice phrases of sledging which would indicate Ampney were Lamb’s to the slaughter.  Littlechild (38) had other ideas and batted with steel and determination in seeing off the new ball after the departures of Grindle (10) and O’Keefe (13) in the 7^th and 15^th overs respectively. 

In seeing off the new bowlers the platform was set with Ampney reaching 69-2 at half way.  Defty (63) joined his skipper, who was holding the innings in place, and after a shaky start found the fluency that led him to the top of the averages in 2009 however his fine knock was quickly ended when G Swann crudely ran him out having reached his 50 and thus sticking to his promise of restricting Defty’s average in 2010.

This was emphasised further with Swann producing a chanceless innings to end not out on 26 along with Gilchrist 28 no who added some late pace to the innings to take the score to a very fine 210-5.

Ampney took to the field with determination to improve on last weeks efforts.  Both Cook (2-19) and Fielder (1-8) impressed early restricting the opposition to 4 runs in 8 overs to put the home side on top.

If the old adage of catches win matches then this rung true today with 9 of the ten wickets falling in this fashion with “fumbles” Defty taking 3 behind the stumps.  Special mention must go to Rutter and Gleed whom showed a level of athleticism not seen since the 1992 Ampney Hot dog challenge.  Firstly Rutter took a diving catch falling over before Gleed produced a spectacular one hand catch which is an early contender for moment of the season.

With a strong fielding performance Ampney were always in control although Arnold (78) did produced a spirited batting performance before becoming the 3^rd of O’Keefe’s  wickets (3-6). 

The final result, a convincing victory by 67 runs, continued the winning start to the season.

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