OXTED & Limpsfield still remain undefeated as they produced a dominant display with the bat to defeat Farncombe by ten wickets at Master Park on Saturday.
Stuart Fletcher won the toss and asked Farncombe to bat on a hard dry wicket.
The Oxted opening bowlers, Lee McIlwraith and David Paisey found their line and length and were proving difficult to get away. Both struck in quick succession, reducing Farncombe to 14-2 inside five overs. Farncombe were in danger of collapsing at 37-3.
Hugh Cranendonk, the Farncombe opening batsmen, however, had other ideas and dug in with his new partner, Ben Appleton, to try to rebuild the innings. Both batted sensibly and slowly pulled Farncombe back into the game.
The partnership had just gone past 60 when an excellent piece of fielding by Nadeem Durrany led to the run-out of Appleton (24) and, with Gordon Boxshall picking up Adam Appleton immediately after, all the good work had been undone as Farncombe slipped to 100-5.
Cranendonk needed support, which was exactly what Simon Ekins (27) gave and the pair of them pushed the score through to 147. Cranendonk was the next man to go for an excellent 105. From this point onwards wickets fell at regular intervals, with McIlwraith (19-4) coming back into the attack to pick up the last couple of wickets, Farncombe had managed 170.
Fletcher and Simon Jackson have been in excellent form this season so far and any variation in line and length from the Farncombe bowlers found its way to the boundary. Adam Appleton bowled well for Farncombe, but the runs kept coming at the other end. When the partnership went past 100 the game was slipping away quickly from the visitors.
Both batsmen accelerated towards the end to bring the game to an early finish. Fletcher finished on 82 not out and Jackson on 78 not out, giving Oxted a commanding ten-wicket win. Oxted travel to Hampton Wick Royal next week looking to make it four wins from four.
