Williams happy with fast start

Falkland pick up their first win of the Thames Valley season

FALKLAND first-team captain Jason Williams said that Saturday’s win against Hayes was ‘fully deserved’ as they picked up their first points of the season in Division 1 of the Thames Valley league.

Falkland beat their opponents by 110 runs, which included healthy scores from Sagar Chhabria (46), James Ettridge (41) and Danny Williams (42), as well as an unbeaten 90 from James Lauder and an unbeaten 51 from Hector Chambers.

After winning the toss, Williams elected to bat first to give themselves a healthy target to defend.

He said: “We had four genuine spinners in the side, so the plan was to bat first, get a decent enough total that we could defend and then hope they would keep playing their shots and eventually succumb to the spinners, which I am happy to report was the case.

“We started off in great fashion with Danny and Jimmy getting us off to yet another flyer with a partnership of 98 off only 14 overs and we never looked back.

“Sagar added a very quick 46 and although we could have faltered at 165-5, 17-year-old Hector James produced a brilliant and match-winning partnership of 145 runs getting us a better than average score of 311.”

And Lauder, who has just joined the club settled in well.

Williams said: “Launder is looking like a good find as he joined us from Oxford Downs and he looks very calm under pressure and this was Hectors debut so not one that he will forget in a hurry.”

Despite a relatively strong start from Hayes, wickets started to fall, with Charlie Dale, Jimmy Shaw, Chambers and Chhabria all claiming some.

“The only negative coming that we let them get 200 runs and an extra batting point which might prove crucial at the end of the season.”

The first-team now head to Gerrards Cross this weekend, with the boost of last year’s leading run scorer in Will Langmead, being available.

“We have one enforced change with George Stephens missing, but we welcome back Will so we are at full strength.”

Falkland 2nd team fell to a two wicket defeat when they travelled to Finchampstead 3rd in Division 3a last weekend.

Falkland opened the batting and Graham Beal scored highest with 38, while Liam Cooper in at five scored 35 runs himself.
With the extras, the visitors ended play on 171-8.

After four of the first five Finchampstead batsmen all being dismissed for zero, things looked to be heading Falkland’s way.

Gul Afridi took four wickets while teammate Mark Baker had three of his own.

However, a 71 from Sean Woodward and an unbeaten 43 from Sam Taylor brought stability for the home side as they edged to victory.

It was defeat for

Falkland 3rd in Division 5b as they lost by 129 runs when they faced Henley 3rd.

Henley opened the batting and set Falkland a target of 277.

And the slow start cost them and despite a 32 from Rowan Hathaway, they fell well short of their target.