Broadway 1st v Henley in Arden 1st – Premier Division, Saturday 30th June

Broadway (20) 162 all out beat Henley in Arden (5) 77 all out by 85 runs.

Having scraped back to winning ways last week, this week’s victory was much more conclusive.

With customary damp playing conditions Henley were very pleased to win the toss and invited Broadway to bat first. A slight revision in the batting order meant Mark opened with elder brother Gary Evans, and they opened up positively. In extremely helpful bowling conditions Mark particularly thrived on anything loose and they lifted the score to 44 before Gary feathered a catch behind. Mark’s bright innings was prematurely ended on 32 when one stopped in pitch and he was caught at mid-wicket, with the score on 46. Humpston and Nigel Evans, then built on the solid start and pushed the score into the 70s before Humpston (18) missed a straight one. Powell (13) greeted Cole 3 for 31, with two explosive sixes over the leg side, before one again stopped in the pitch and he lobbed a simple catch to the keeper, all in the same over. When Evans (17) fell caught at slip, off the same bowler, the innings looked to be stuttering at 95 for 5.

Phillips and Hawkins (13) set about a recovery putting on a vital 38. Phillips seized on anything remotely short and mixed this with some brutal straight hits. His 34 proved significant. Hawkins was dismissed, after a couple of elegant boundaries but Beale helped Phillips maintain the momentum. For once, this season, the lower Broadway batting failed and the innings fizzled out to 162 all out in only the 40th over.

The first over of Henley’s reply went for 7 but that is where their good news ended. Smallman induced a false shot from Ross, as it tickled one to the keeper. Powell then took centre stage. He decimated the batting line up with figures of 5 for 4, off his first 6 overs, reducing them to 15 for 3, 24 for 4 and 34 for 6. He clean bowled the dangerous Stibbons and Styler, had Cole caught at slip and trapped Hearnden lbw. Henley were lifted from their collective gloom by an impressive cameo from Rostil (46). He struck the ball out of the ground on a few occasions and threatened the cars parked in the vicinity. Stewart (3 for 19) joined in the festivities by bowling Mansoor and having Key caught at slip. When Rostil and Perry briefly threatened an unlikely comeback with an intended all out assault it was abruptly curtailed by a remarkable goal keeper like catch on the boundary by Phillips. The ball was ferociously stuck, hardly six feet off the ground, before only Phillips’ intervention stopped a certain six and turned it into Powell’s fifth wicket. He claimed his sixth next ball and would have claimed the match with a hat trick but Humpston failed to cling on to a low chance at third slip. He had to settle for fantastic figures of 6 for 30.

The unfortunate Rostil, whose performance meant he didn’t deserve to be on the losing side, combining 2 for 27 off his ten overs and 46 off only 29 balls, was the last to fall. He aimed a blow over extra cover and was caught on the run at the third attempt by home skipper Gary Evans to bring his enterprising innings and the match to a close.

The win moved Broadway up to 4th in the league at the halfway stage and ahead of the reverse fixture at Henley this weekend. The second team spent most of the afternoon watching the first team victory as their fixture at Henley was a complete washout.