Taplow Valiant

Denham decided the fate of the championship on Saturday, but not quite in the way they might have liked.

Denham might have felt confident at the end of the Taplow innings. They had them 35/4 at one stage but Gunnesekera scored 81 to help them to reach 197 all out, with Bobby Rai 3/12 and Jamil Shaikh 3/48 doing the business for Denham.

Up at Holyport the home side (in third place) had been dismissed for 188 by League leaders-for-ever Penn and Tylers Green. It seemed pretty clear that Penn would win the League and that depending on Penn's margin of victory Denham would also prevail, and sneak above Holyport into third spot.

Alas Denham had a poor start, falling to 15/3 on an increasingly difficult surface. Although Joe O'Hara (43) and Dave Maynard (33) rallied, Denham crumbled away to 146 all out.

On the other hand, the 29-7 margin in favour of Taplow meant that as Penn, bowled out for 152, lost 29-8 against Holyport, Taplow overtook Penn to win the championship by a single point.

It was the second season in a row that Taplow had won the league at Denham. The latter got just 7 points for their day's work, but it was just enough to stay in fourth place 1 point ahead of Chalfont St Giles who were just 4 runs short of victory when stumps were drawn.

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Best Win of the Day

P Richards, 107, and Dave Tang, 95, helped Denham knock up the second highest score in any of the 20 games played in the Chilterns League: 276/6.

In reply Amersham Hill were skittled out for 153, with R Rulach 3/5 and Alex Merman 3/58 doing most of the damage.

The 30 points gained meant that Denham overhauled White Waltham to finish the League year in a respectable sixth place. Binfield were champions: won 11 out of 14 completed games and drew the other 3.

Go Denham!

Alan Coulson 's Report

Denham batted first against Iver Heath and scored at a brisk rate. However, they were never able to dominate as wickets fell regularly, with no batsman able to build a big score.

Best efforts were achieved by Bobby Rai, whose 42 included a six from his first ball and Richie Braithwaite, whose 30 contained an array of entertaining shots, including two sixes. A final total of 196 for 9 after 40 overs presented a reasonable challenge to Iver Heath.

A fast start of 36 in four overs looked worrying for Denham, but the game changed as James Nicholas with 2 for 16 and Joe O'Hara with 2 for 15 slowed the scoring rate and took important wickets.

Another flourish from Iver Heath saw the game evenly poised with 30 needed from the last four overs. It was time for more bowling heroics with Akhil Sabherwal producing a wicket maiden and Bobby finishing the Iver Heath innings with figures of 3 for 28.

Iver Heath were all out for 177 in the 39th over and Denham had won by 19 runs.

Scorecard
A.Sabherwal 25,
J.Nicholas 9,
B. Rai 42,
J.O'Hara 14,
R.Braithwaite 30,
D.Tang 14,
S.Bull 21,
P.Schembri 1,
H. Mehta 12,
A.Marman N.O.3,
A.Coulson N.O.3

Total 196 for 9

Bowling H.Mehta 8 overs 0 maidens 37 runs 0 wickets, A.Marman 2 0 18 0 J.Nicholas 8 4 16 2, J.O'Hara 8 5 15 2, D.Tang 4 1 27 1, B.Rai 5.2 0 28 3, A. Sabherwal 3 1 18 2

Catches: Schembri, Coulson, O'Hara