Disappointing weekend for Dunstable Town CC

The Saturday first team were left with two losses from two in the Saracens Herts League Championship.

The firsts collapsed from 131-3 to 141 all out against Reed with Guy Hill’s innings of 63 the only bright spot, Kashif Ali adding 26.

Reed struggled their way to their target as they lost seven wickets in the process, Mike Alston taking 3-19 and Luke Cherry 3-45.

There were two brilliant results at Lancot Park on the other hand as the IIs and IIIs both came out victorious.

The second team also batted first and finished on 199-8 against Reeds IIs. Openers Andy Boocock (50) and Ian Horton (39) set a good platform for Dunstable, before 42 from captain Sam Marshall and 29 from Jason Strong pushed them on.

Despite at one stage looking like they had work to do, Ian Gilbert’s 3-27 plus two wickets each from Marshall, Harry McBrearty and David Wagstaff earned Dunstable a 21-run win.

Ayaz Ahmed broke a Herts League record as he took 8-10 from 9.4 overs against Datchworth as the visitors were skittled for just 42.

Before that, opener Ned Whitney (38), Adam Lewis (34) and Mark Smith (32) all made contributions.

David Barker hit 27, before 29 from Hamzah Khan led Dunstable to 217 all out and that proved to be more than enough.

The fourth team were gifted their third win in three games as Riseley conceded.

Dunstable’s overseas player Ben Abbott made an impressive debut on Sunday as Southill Park as he smashed 103 from just 40 balls as Dunstable were 100-1 off just eight overs. Earlier, Sam Cherry took 4-65 as Southill made 223-7 from their 45 overs.

Abbott and Luke Cherry (22) then made a fine start to the Dunstable innings, but another collapse for the second day running meant Dunstable went from 141-1 to 181 all out to fall 42 runs short.

The Sunday IIs suffered their first defeat of the season as they restricted Ickleford to 148-7 from 45 overs, Hamzah Khan taking 3-25, before being bowled out for just 127 in 38.2 overs, Ian Horton top scoring with 33.

Dunstable IIIs succumbed to a monumental 231-run loss at Sharnbrook.

Gurwinder Singh returned 2-26 as Sharnbrook racked up 274 in 40 overs, with Dunstable bowled out for just 43 with only Baz Mehmood (11) making it into double figures.