20/06/12…..Rain thwarts Thame’s cricketing momentum

THE game started well enough when Thame Town Cricket Club visited rural West Oxfordshire on Saturday (16/06) to take on Shipton, newly promoted into the Home Counties Division Two, West.

Asked to bat first in overcast conditions, Thame made a good start with Mike Higgs (26) and James Nielson (39) putting on 71 for the first wicket. The middle order had been changed by captain Mike Higgs, but they all found batting difficult against the spin of Miller, and at one stage Thame were 93 for 5. The innings had been rebuilt by Vandit Jivrajani and Sam Lachlan (23), who put on 45 to get the visitors up to a final score of 186, when Jivrajani was last out for 42. Miller ended up with figures of 7 for 44 off 21 overs.

Shipton having come into bat, were soon in trouble thanks to a fine spell by Will Rooney, returning to the team after unavailability last week. He removed three of the first four batsmen to leave Shipton 24 for 4. When Pratik Patel came on, Thame continued to dominate, and victory looked to be only a matter of time when the home side were 80 for 8 in the 33rd over. However, the weather decided to play a part and with a steady drizzle falling, the play was suspended with half an hour to go. But the players never got back out again, leaving Thame cursing their luck in a game they had controlled from the outset.

Will Rooney had figures of 3 for 15 off 10, and Pratik Patel 3 for 11 off 4.

THAME SECONDS recorded their first victory of the season against Banbury, scoring 225, with Will Sutcliffe hitting a polished 81. When Banbury batted, the Thame side restricted them to 131 all out, with Cian Davies taking 4 for 40.

THE THIRDS just lost a tight game against Dinton 3?s by one wicket, despite 68 from Guy Holmes. M Sheffield scored 58 for Dinton, with Waj Ali taking 3 for 37 and Will Hawthorne 3 for 42 for Thame.

THE SUNDAY XI won a good game away against Burnham. Batting first, Thame scored 232 off their 40 overs, with Adam Phippen hitting 76 and Tom de Haan scoring 43. Burnham were always behind the rate, and finished on 211 for 9 with Phippen taking 2 for 12 off 5 and Jivrajani 3 for 19 off 7.

PHOTO: Vandit Jivrajani in action