A flat looking Denton Road track greeted the captains at the toss. Horton chose to chase after winning the coin flip. It was a great start for Horton as Ben Meachem and Kalpesh Chandracant both grabbed wickets, to remove the two visiting openers. Kalpesh (3-27) continued to make inroads and Brixworth found themselves 54-4. A fine stumping from James Watson off Chandracant, brought in the Brixworth number 5. He decided to counterattack and led a comeback, smashing his way to 54 from 47. An attempted short single to substitute Fred Jeyes would be his downfall, as the Monday Night regular picked up the ball on the run and through it in over the stumps to run out the dangerman. At 122-7 Horton were firmly in control, despite Karan Parmar (2-38) bowling well. Brixworth’s tail rallied to 225 before Meachem (2-45) finished off the innings.

With Fin Moffat in A&E after a shoulder issue picked up attempted another diving catch, James Watson was promoted to opener. James batted well for a fine 60, continuing to be positive in his running. Akshat Adhikari (35) provided the foil as the two put on 70 for the 3rd wicket. From this position, Horton would falter in the chase. Will Knibbs (21) provided some hope, but the rest of the order fell, mostly to poor shot selection. Fin Moffat returned from A&E and even went out Chris Woakes style, but it was enough. Horton were bowled out for 192 in a disappointing loss.

2nd XI vs. Rushton CC 1st XI

The 2’s travelled to play Rushton 1’s for the 18th week of our 2025 campaign. Fielding a young side (average age 22yrs – and that included a 48 and 43yr old) we won the toss and decided to bat first. Maybe the youngest ever 2’s side ???.

Harvey Cooke and Finn Herrington opened the innings, after losing Harvey early, Finn and Harvey banks put on 51 for the 2nd wicket. Harvey Banks played some eye catching and powerful shots to score a very well made 47 off only 51 balls with 6 x 4’s and 1 x 6. Sai Ravikumar batted very sensibly and held our middle/lower order together, playing some very elegant strokes. Sai’s shot selection was outstanding as was his rotation of strike. Sai eventually fell for 72 off 84 balls with 11 x 4’s. Harry Bennett-Sulsh also made a very good contribution scoring 30 off only 27 balls with 6 x 4’s. We ended our innings 224 all out.

We set about trying to defend 224. All the bowlers bowled really well and were superbly backed up in the field with some great catches and some fine ground fielding. There were wickets for HBS (6-2-26-1), Rory Monk (5-0-15-1), Alfie Richardson (5-1-13-2), Thomas Hodgkinson (7.3-1-25-3) and Katie Fidler (3-0-10-2). We managed to bowl Rushton 1’s out for 101 in the 27th over.

After 18 completed weeks of the 2025 season, the 2’s have now won 13, lost 4, and had one cancelled, and we currently sit 3rd in the league. With 4 games remaining our target is to win all of them and see where that takes us.