BANBURY maintained their Indian sign over hosts Horspath with a comfortable five-wicket victory in Division 1 of the Home Counties Premier League.

The sides have now met seven times in the top flight with Banbury winning six and drawing one.

Having been put in, Horspath were restricted to 188-7 with Tom Coleman making 49.

Darryl Brown (27) and skipper Will Eason (24) chipped in, but Horspath were never able to get on top of the Banbury bowling led by spinners Richard West (2-29) and Joe Thomas (2-32).

It looked a below-par score although Banbury’s reply didn’t get off to the best of starts with skipper Lloyd Sabin falling early on to Will Robertson before Joe White retired hurt with a dislocated right knee.

However, Shahid Yousaf and Oli Clarke got the visitors back on track.

Horspath’s hopes were lifted when Robertson (2-30) removed Yousaf, who made 55, to make it 141-5.

But Shazad Rana (34no) and George Tait (21no) then put on an unbroken 51 for the sixth wicket to see Banbury home.

Aston Rowant fell to a second successive defeat when going down by 11 runs at Datchet.

Dom Whatman took the opening four wickets in figures of 4-36, but despite having the hosts in trouble at 177-7, Datchet recovered to post 240-8.

Tom Condon top-scored with 50 in reply, helped by Josh Smith’s 48, but wickets fell regularly as Rowant were all out for 229 in the final over.

  • It was a cracking weekend for the three Oxfordshire clubs in Division 2, with Oxford, Thame Town and Oxford Downs all winning.

Calvin Dickinson hit a super century as Oxford made it two out of two with a 67-run victory over Amersham on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.

His quickfire 128 came off just 96 balls and featured 13 fours and six sixes as Oxford amassed 262-8 off their 50 overs.

Amersham’s reply was interrupted by rain, but they were never in the hunt as Chris Humphreys (3-14), Shami Mendis (2-14) and Harvey Eltham (2-29) shone with the ball.

The hosts were all out for 121 in the 22nd over, chasing a revised target of 188 from 24 overs.

Oxford Downs also recorded a second straight victory with a 125-run success over Wokingham.

Will Watts top-scored with 87 as Downs, put in to bat, scored 220-6 from their 50 overs.

Skipper George Sandbach, who last week led the way with the bat, this time was the star with the ball, taking 5-19 from 9.5 overs to rip through the Wokingham line-up as the hosts were dismissed for just 95 in the 32nd over.

Thame got off the mark for the season with an exciting three-wicket victory at Cookham Dean.

Despite a steady start from the Thame bowlers, the home side soon got on top and, led by Yash Rastogi’s 88 set 231-5 off their 50 overs.

But the visitors were up to the task.

Thomas Bamford led the way with an unbeaten 84 and skipper Michael Beard hit 58 as they passed their target in the 46th over for a first success.