READING Blue Coat retained the Berkshire County Cup with a fine 62-run victory against Herschel Grammar School recently.

The Sonning school won the toss and elected to bat, and after the loss of an early wicket, Andrew Perkin (36) and James le Fleming (12) put together an important partnership, with the former in particular giving the innings some real momentum, hitting boundaries all over the ground. Zain Butt continued the momentum with a quickfire innings, and Ben Coombs added some useful runs late on to make the final score 128 all out in 25 overs.

Blue Coat knew they would have to be at their best to defend this total, and Perkin and Tom Lawton-Davies bowled well at the start, with Perkin taking the first wicket.

Jonathan Lillie continued to build the pressure – taking another wicket, before man-of-the-match le Fleming then turned the game on its head with a fantastic bowling performance, taking 3-12 in five overs.

He mixed his bowling up superbly, bowling a number of slower balls, which proved decisive.

Max Hanshaw then took the vital wicket, with Adam Wright taking the pressure catch. Coombs and Ollie Bailey were superb in the field throughout, while George Waghorn was excellent behind the stumps and pulled off a brilliant one-handed run out.

Rikhil Bansal was unfortunate not to get a longer bowl because of the late fall of wickets, but he nonetheless managed to take a wicket with his only delivery.

Blue Coat coach Steve Roberts gushed: “It was really fitting that, after a below par score in the first innings, the boys produced their best fielding and bowling performance of the season. They really rose to the occasion and were a real credit to themselves and the school.”