The Horton Reds arrived at Old's second ground full of confidence after a strong start to the season, having notched up three consecutive wins. For the second match in a row, the opposition chose to bat first, setting the stage for another busy outing in the field for Horton.

Fielding proved challenging on a ground with short boundaries and rolling hills, but our Monday night training sessions had clearly paid off. Despite an uneven outfield and a tricky artificial wicket, our bowlers adapted well, limiting Old to just a few clear scoring opportunities.

An early run-out appeal was turned down by the umpire—much to the disbelief of both players and supporters—but the Reds kept their composure. Mia made the breakthrough, claiming our only wicket, but the Old batters—well accustomed to the quirks of their home ground—used clever shot placement and smart running to set a competitive target of 100.

Horton’s chase began positively, with the openers rotating the strike well and carefully negotiating the unpredictable bounce. Old’s bowlers maintained tight lines and pace, restricting boundaries and building pressure. When Erin H came to the crease, she injected momentum into the innings, top-scoring with an impressive 34.

Unfortunately, wickets fell steadily at the other end, and despite the fighting spirit, the Reds were bowled out for 90—just 10 runs short of the target.

It was the first loss of the season for Horton Reds, but the narrow margin and solid individual performances leave plenty of positives to take forward. A closely contested match and a reminder of how small moments can turn a game.

1st XI vs. Irthlingborough Town CC

The 1st XI welcomed Irthlingborough Town CC to Denton Road, in Week 7 of the NCL. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat on a traditional looking Denton Road surface. The Irthlingborough openers started slow, with Chandracant (10.1-2-27-2) being his usual skilful self and Ben Meachem (10-2-25-1) hitting the keepers gloves before the Irthlingborough skipper had moved. Ben finally put the skipper out of his misery, fending a bouncer to Will Knibbs in the cordon. The spinners got into their work and made it very hard for any visiting batsman to get going, with Karan Parmar ((13-0-46-4) making consistent breakthroughs. The star of the attack was once again Anvit Arkanath, who bowled unbroken from The Drive End to return figures of 13-8-13-3, a remarkable spell from the youngster. With the screws turned, there was a lot to do in the final overs to make any kind of score. Kalpesh would come back into the attack and finish the tail, as Irthlingborough were dismissed for 133 from 49.1 overs.

Horton’s openers were in no mood to set about a slow chase. Fin Moffat (54 from 33 balls) and Karan Parmar (38 from 39 balls) broke the back of the chase quickly and the partnership reached 93 before Fin was bowled, bringing to an end the entertaining knock which included him hitting one over Denton Road. Horton had a small wobble, with Karan following shortly, caught on the boundary, and then Harry Mowat, ran out. James Watson (11*) and Joe Maw (18*) finished the job to see House over the line in the 18th over, to secure 25 points.

2nd XI vs. Old CC

The 2’s made the trip to Old CC to play their 2nd XI for our 6th game of the 2025 season.
Having won the toss on a warm and humid day we decided to have a bat first.
Craig Reilly and Finn Herrington opened the innings for us and combined impressive shot selection, game awareness, taking advantage of any loose balls, plus, wonderful running between the wickets to put on an amazing 216, 1st wicket partnership.

Finn ending up with 102 (his second consecutive hundred!), and Craig 125.
Harvey Banks came in at Number 3 which is always awkward after such a long and very impressive opening partnership. Harvey played very well, hitting 55 off only 37 balls with quality shots all around the wicket. We ended end our innings on 295/2 in our 45 overs.
On paper we had a very strong batting line up and batted the whole way down. So, what was so pleasing for me to see was Craig, Finn and Harvey taking responsibility and not leaving it to someone else.

In the second innings we bowled and fielded extremely well and our catching was superb. There were wickets for all the bowlers (Rory Monk (1), Steve Finch (1), Arnav Jain (2), Elliot Cantrell (2) and James Hawksworth (4).

It was a very impressive all round display by the team and the first time this season we have nailed all three disciplines.

We welcome New Bradwell 2’s this coming Saturday to Denton Road look to keep up our winning momentum and level of performance.

3rd XI vs. Kettering Town CC

Some victories come relatively easily, when one side is better or outplays the other. But some wins come after a very closely fought match, when either side could triumph. Such was the first win for the 3s this season away at Kettering.

Kettering is normally a bat first pitch, but a certain green tinge to the wicket meant that bowling was also a possibility. Having lost the toss Horton were thus bowling and Kev soon took advantage of the greenish stuff to break through, dismissing both of the Kettering openers, and finishing with 3-35. Alfie and then Jake then took a wicket each before the experienced Noding and Goodwin threatened to put on a big score. Step up Ian Street to dismiss them along with two others to end on 4-26. When Zed took the final wicket Kettering had been dismissed for 157.

The Horton innings started steadily, with Fred and the skipper blunting the strong Kettering openers (including Rae who took 42 wickets last season). A solid platform had been established when the first wicket fell at 33, but uneven bounce was starting to become more evident after Fred and Abhinav were dismissed at 51-4. However, with the wise old heads of Amos and Zed batting the scoreboard started to tick over until the uneven bounce did for Amos (LBW) and Horton were 108-4 in the 27 over. With 50 to get in 13 overs, with wickets in hand, the odds were in favour of the batting side. But to their credit Kettering kept fighting and wickets began to tumble, leaving us on 118-7, then 126-8. Streety clobbered 10 in an over but then was caught behind. Amid the mayhem Ryan ‘Coolhand’
Monk was still in, picking up singles and refusing to budge, when he was joined at the wicket by Kev at 146-9 in the 34th over. With 12 required off 6 overs the game could have gone either way, but in the 37th over with 5 required Ryan picked out the right ball to deposit over the boundary (winning the 3rd Team Play of the Day trophy by a mile). There are few more satisfying sights for a team than to win a game with a 6, especially with 9 wickets down. A fine game played in a good spirit and great to get our first ‘W’ of the season.

4th XI vs. Thrapston

It was a beautiful day at Bozeat as the Legends took on their old nemesis - Thrapston 4s. Catching up with our pals from Thrapston who have the same view on progressing the juniors through to senior teams always make for a good day out.

A massive thank you to all those who stepped down for this weekend as we rotated some players and with players coming down from other teams – especially those who came to the ground to watch us.

Opening the batting Jeremy Jesus and Harry Street got us off to a solid start and at drinks we were only a wicket down with Harry looking to kick on. However, that never happened – with tight bowling from Thrapston and poor choices from the batsmen Horton were reduced to 53-7 in the space of 3 overs. Srikrishnav Sainath (21*) and Alfie Inwood (24) saved our blushes as Horton finished on 103.

Horton have won games from this position and it was going to take a magical and mystical performance from the whole team and it looked like that would be Harry Street, as he removed the two openers and Alex “Stoksey” Monk and Srikrishnav got stuck in – we almost got there with one batsman just taking the match away from us. Credit to all of the Legends putting the yards in as we bowled and fielded our hearts out – strong work rate by everyone and in no small measure to Monday Nights Feilding at Denton Road.

We go again next week. Let’ seek and destroy!!!