Amersham 1st XI visited near neighbours and local rivals Chesham on Saturday and came away with a victory after a close and entertaining game of cricket. New Amersham captain Luke Jackson got his reign off to a good start by winning the toss and electing to bat. The Amersham innings consisted almost entirely of an unbroken partnership of 164 for the second wicket between Chris Fleming and Rob Viney. Fleming batted throughout the innings for his 103, while Viney scored 70. The Chesham attack began well, restricting Amersham to around 2 an over for the first half of the innings. Particularly effective in this regard were Saj Fayyaz (1-13 off his 9 overs) and Ali Birkby (0-21 off 9). However, Fleming and Viney accelerated effectively in the second half of the innings, the former moving from 50 to 100 off only 35 balls and reaching his 100 with a straight driven 6.

After tea Chesham displayed aggressive intent from the very beginning. Russell Owens hit 17 off 10 balls before becoming the first of James Harmer’s 3 victims. A second wicket partnership of 42 built a good platform for the home side, but wickets fell at regular intervals as Jackson rotated his bowlers effectively. The youthful seamers Harmer (3-42), Matt Mackay (1-31) and Hanook Gill (3-35) all bowled well to complement Amersham’s Australian import Matt Crawley (1-23) and spinner David Atkinson (2-37). 20 from Simon Andrews and 34 from Rob Maier in the middle of the Chesham innings threatened to win the game comfortably for the home side, but when Maier holed out off Gill and two more wickets fell quickly with the score on 146 the advantage passed back to Amersham. A flurry from Tom Crick brought Chesham to within 10 runs of victory, but a slower ball from Harmer induced a false shot and the bowler accepted the return catch to bring proceedings to a close. Both sides were pleased with the performances of some of their young players, many of whom will make an impact on the league cricket that begins in a fortnight. This Saturday Amersham is playing Kidmore End at Shardeloes in their final friendly before the league begins.