Morris's runs came off 95 balls, but by the time he fell in the strangest fashion, reverse scooping a delivery from Harrison Ward to Stephen Green at backward point, 14-year-old Aadi Sharma was well into his stride. Will Eason, who had made an early breakthrough by removing opener Austin John for nought, returned to the attack to have the prolific Garth Davson caught behind by Will Hawtin to leave Brickhill 165-4.
Sharma completed an impressive half-century with a four straight down the ground towards the scout hut off Belcher only to hole out to Harrison Ward at mid-off two balls later. The teenager's sparkling 39-ball innings featured six boundaries and a six. However, after his dismissal the jitters set in for the visitors.
Belcher (4-41) followed up with a double-wicket maiden, trapping Jilesh Pattni lbw and then bowling Kevin Wijesinghe with consecutive deliveries. Alfie Turner then bowled Jilesh Pattni in the penultimate over while conceding just two runs, with Ward pulling off a brilliant piece of fielding off the final delivery to keep the game alive. Jude Ramanadanpulle smashed the ball to the mid-wicket boundary by the nets where it looked as if was going for six. But Ward leapt to catch it and as he fell backwards over the boundary, he returned the ball inside the rope before quickly getting to his feet and throwing it in to restrict Brickhill to a single.
It left the visitors still needing three to win off the last over and Horspath's hopes were finally dashed as Ramanadanpulle took a single off Belcher's first ball before Anton De Beer hit the next delivery through mid-off for four to take Brickhill to 199-8. Belcher finished with 4-41, while Will Eason picked up 2-28, Turner impressed again with 1-30 and Ward (1-39) was the other wicket-taker.
Horspath had pushed Brickhill much closer than had looked likely after they had once again posted a below-par total. The hosts were indebted to Darryl Brown, in his first game since suffering a serious knee injury just over a year ago, with 59 off 54 balls as they suffered a mid-innings collapse.
Openers Tom Coleman and Ward laid a solid foundation with 51, before the latter was bowled by Wijesinghe for 16. Coleman was next to go for a fluent 33 - lbw to Davson, who then had Dwadesh Sehgal smartly stumped by Morris off a wide to make it 81-3.
Eason started brightly with three boundaries only to become bogged down, but took the score to 136 with Brown before four wickets fell for the addition of one run. Eason was bowled by Chavda for 18, and in the next over Critchley claimed a hat-trick by bowling Hawtin and Green before Graham Beer was lbw to leave Horspath 137-7.
Brown completed an excellent half-century before falling lbw attempting to reverse sweep a delivery from Chavda with the score on 169, and it was only a spirited unbroken ninth-wicket stand by Belcher (18no) and Turner (11no) which took Horspath to their final total. Critchley finished with 3-34, while Davson (2-37), Chavda (2-39) and Wijesinghe (1-37) were also among the wickets.
Posted by: Russ