Foxes beat Saffron Walden on opening weekend

Foxton enjoyed an 11 run victory over Saffron Walden in the opening weekend of the Cambs and Hunts Premier League season.

Winning the toss and batting first the foxes made steady progress against some tight Saffron Walden bowling and fielding, Webster was the first wicket to fall when he chipped to ball to mid-on for 24 with the score on 45. The wickets of Mark Bott (21) and Alex Hooley (5) followed shortly and the innings was teetering at 63-3 with Jeff Douglas and new man Craig Park at the crease. Here followed an excellent re-building job by this pair who sensibly ticked over the scoreboard with some good running being the wickets intermitted by a number of lusty blows against the spinner. Unfortunately, Douglas fell LBW for 29 with the score on 146 however Park was looking comfortable by this stage and with the help of Dave Fagan they put on 103 for the 5^th wicket with a number of attractive (and less attractive) boundaries. Both men lost their wickets towards the end of the innings in the search for further quick runs but after 50 overs Foxton ended on 262-6 mainly thanks to a classy knock of 93 off 87 balls by debutant Park and an aggressive 46 off 40 balls by Fagan.

After the tea break it was time for another debutant, Dan Brown, to take the new ball and he ran in hard alongside Douglas beating the outside edge on a number of occasions, on another day both bowlers could have easily picked up early wickets. It took until the 17th over however for the first wicket to fall, Park the man to make the breakthrough as he had the Saffron Walden opener caught by skipper Coleman for a well played 52. This dismissal was quickly followed by a maiden wicket for young Australian off-spinner Liam Lofts who trapped the new man LBW for a second ball duck. As the overs ticked by the Foxton bowlers did well to restrict the Saffron Walden batsmen from scoring freely and the required run rate crept up to over 7 an over by the half way stage. Now in search for quick runs left arm 'spinner' Ravi Mahendra capitalised and bagged two quick wickets alongside another two wickets for Lofts and two for Coleman. Saffron Walden fought hard and capitalised on a number of dropped catches by Foxton to take the game to the last over, they eventually however fell 11 runs short of the Foxton total on 251-9.

This was a good opening win for the first team against a strong Saffron Walden side who are expected to be challenging for the title come September. Well done for Dan Brown, Liam Lofts, Craig Park and Mark Botts for making their league debuts.

Next week Foxton host their first home game of the season at the recreation ground against last year’s runners up Wisbech Town.

Photos from Saturday's game are available below:

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