WALTHAM St Lawrence defeated Crowthorne & Crown Wood 2nds in a fluctuating Division One encounter.

The visitors, having been put in to bat, made a promising start thanks to Andy Baines (52), and skipper Simon Sheppard (61), reaching 163 with just four wickets down.

But they then slumped to 204-9, with five bowlers among the wickets, the best being Siva Kumar with 3-58 off 11 overs.

That still looked a decent score when they dismissed five batsmen for just 64, three of them falling to Dan Partridge.

However, opener Sree Venkata held firm to make 77, while No.7 Zaheer Gujjar remained unbeaten on 70 not out, the pair brilliantly rescuing their side with a stand of 129 to turn the game, and WSL eventually got home at 207-6 in the 35th over.

But the day’s biggest partnership came at Woodley 2nds, where Dan Spence made 162 not out and Adam Brown 86 in a remarkable first-wicket stand of 240, enabling Stratfield Turgis/Hartley Wespall to post a formidable total of 259-1 in 45 overs.

Woodley could only make 160 in reply – a 99-run defeat – with their best scores coming from Amol Lotke and Upendra Deshpande with 49 and 41 respectively.

Leaders Shinfield were dismissed for 166 in less than 35 overs after Prasad Gore had taken 4-27 and Shahzad Ahmed 3-26, but that modest total proved more than adequate as they blasted Earley out for just 74 (Dave Maples 20no) thanks to a tremendous spell of bowling from Anuraag Shukla, who took 7-13 from just six overs.

West Reading 2nds squeezed home by one-wicket in a real thriller at Hawley.

Having dismissed their hosts for 163, they made a stuttering start and it needed the efforts of Adnan Raja (22), skipper Usman Ali (35), Rafay Iqbal (26) and Saad Jaffary (25) to keep them on track before last pair Fawad Khan (4) and Khizar Hayat (8) saw them across the line in 40 overs. Even so, they were still indebted to the 30 extras conceded by Hawley.

Daniel Watts hammered 85 off 101 balls and dad, Andy Watts, 58 off 117 as Peppard Stoke Row 2nds (185-3) defeated Twyford & Ruscombe by three wickets. For the visitors, Stuart Barrable made 63 and Shiva Nagam 55 in their total of 184, Roy Hayden claiming 5-32 off 12 overs.

Checkendon defeated Goring by five wickets to remain the runaway leaders in the Premier Division, their seventh win in 10 games leaving them close to nearly a staggering 100 points clear of their nearest rivals.

Electing to field first, they dismissed their hosts for 203 (Parvesh Dabra 74, Andy Benning 42) with Ninad Rahatekar taking 4-50 from 12 overs.

All of the Checkendon top order made useful contributions, the best being Ashish Talreja’s 57, as they sealed the win at 207-5 in the 42nd over.

Reading Chronicle:

Crowthorne & Crown Wood 2nds' Andy Baines sweeps on his way to 52 against Waltham St Lawrence. Pictures: Paul Johns. Code: 180750.

Nick Kingston smashed 77 off 68 balls, including 11 boundaries in Mortimer West End’s six-wicket win over Woodley. The visitors had been dismissed for 179 (Rizmy Nilamdeen 65no) with Andy Johnson (3-40) and Ian Wise (3-48) sharing six wickets.

West End reached their target at 183-4 in 42.2 overs, Josh Beale remaining unbeaten on 29.

Berkshire County Sports overcame the loss of two early wickets to make 209-7 in 36 overs for a three-wicket success against Farley Hill with Adrees Azfal making 60 and Atif Asif 45. Tom Hale was the pick of the pick of Farley Hill bowlers with 4-53 off 12 overs.

Opener Ross Ditchburn, with 45, and Ali Jalil (43) were the main contributors in Farley Hill’s 206-6 off 45 overs.

Skipper Adam Birch led Sandhurst to a seven-wicket win over Ibis Mapledurham with a fine knock of 93, while James Birch remained unbeaten on 51 as the side finished on 185-3. They had earlier restricted Ibis to 181-9 (Richard Pilkington 46) with Ed Batchelor returning excellent figures of 12-3-31-5.

Division Two table-toppers Shinfield had a winning draw away to Welford Park. They put themselves in a strong position by totalling 300-7 in their 45 overs with Harsha Kolla contributing 68 and Bhuwan Satway 56, but Welford Park comfortably held out for a draw at 186-6 with skipper Uday Paturi cracking 16 boundaries in his fine innings of 90 off 106 balls.

Peppard Stoke Row 3rds dug themselves out of a deep hole in inflicting a 72-run defeat on Knowl Hill.

Having been put into bat, they slumped to 63-7, but Pradeep Kumar, with 62 not out, and captain Rob Dyer (55no) lifted them to 176-7 by the end of their 45 overs.

They then dismissed their hosts for 104 (John Randall 43) with Ian Jordan taking 4-14 off nine overs.

Fahad Raja hit 92 and Aqeel Butt 53 as West Reading 3rds were dismissed for 246 and then Saif Khan claimed 4-40 in Sulhamstead & Ufton 3rds’ all out total of 160.

Warfield collected a welcome 35 points due to Wokingham 6ths cancelling the fixture.

Division Three leaders Mortimer West End 2nds extended their unbeaten run with an 89-run defeat of Earley. They were dismissed for 211 before rolling over their hosts for 122, Rob Hodson following up his 43 with 3-10 from 5.2 overs.

Superb half-centuries from Ian Bowen (58) and Andy Makinson (55) helped Mortimer to post 235-7 on their way to an 81-run win over Shinfield 3rds, whose 154 all out included 41 from opener Emil Reisser-Weston.

Six wickets were shared by Mortimer duo Jimmy George (3-20) and Wayne Wharton (3-35).