Amersham 2nds maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a 5 wicket victory over Old Merchant Taylors at Shardeloes on Saturday to move to the top of Thames Valley League Div 3.

Having won the toss and inserted the opposition to bat first on a damp wicket at Shardeloes, the signs initially did not look promising as the OMT openers raced to 48-0 off the first 7 overs. However, once the dangerous Boordley was bowled by Duncan Ward for a quickfire 36, the Amersham opening pair of Ward ( 7-64 ) and Chris Sowden (3-44 ) settled into excellent long spells and the relentless build up of pressure resulted in a steady fall of wickets, with the visitors being dismissed for 111 off just 35 overs.

In reply, the Amersham batsmen were themselves never entirely comfortable on a wicket that continued to make strokeplay difficult, and at 56-4 the game was seemingly finely poised. This brought together Sowden and Ward who repeated their earlier success with a vital 37 run partnership that took Amersham to within touching distance of victory before Ward was dismissed with the total on 96. Chris Sowden then brought up a well deserved half century with a succession of boundaries and finished unbeaten on 64 as Amersham secured victory with plenty of overs to spare.