Warley 268-7

Oxenhope 142

AFTER a good win the previous week, Oxenhope slipped back to a heavy 126-run defeat at high-flying Warley in the Spenser Wilson Halifax League Premier Division.

The home took advantage of a good track to rack up a challenging but not impossible 268-7 with runs all down the order, Ben Atkinson making 55, Khatana and Rensburg both hitting 46.

Liam Dyson toiled through the heat to record 3-70 in 15 overs and Duncan Tetley was prominent again with 3-59.

Oxenhope started brightly in reply with Josh Fleetwood leading the chase with 51 at the top of the order.

However, the chase faltered as the Oxenhope middle and late order fell to the impressive swing bowling of Benn Duckitt (6-57) and Gregg Keywood (4-44), with only Liam Dyson (23) really troubling the scorers as the visitors were dismissed for just 142.

Meanwhile, the batsmen once again dominated proceedings on the excellent Oxenhope batting track.

The home team welcomed the return of Craig Bartlett and he duly obliged with a century at the top of the order.

Robin Cusdin joined him at the fall of the first wicket and continued his fine run of scoring with 85.

When the big New Zealander was finally dismissed for 101 there was more pain to come for the Queensbury bowlers as Hamzah Khan picked up where he left off the previous week blasting a quick-fire 59 not out as Oxenhope amassed 293-5 in the 45 overs.

For the visitors, Queensbury's Kristen Smith toiled through 13 overs, taking 3-86.

Despite the big total, Queensbury were always in the hunt to pull off an unlikely victory with skipper Phil Sharples leading the way with 97.

Runs came all down the order with the biggest contributions coming from Kahlid Mahmood (42) and Craig Roberts (36) the major contributors.

Just when victory looked possible, Hamzah Khan returned for his second spell and clean bowled four victims to snuff out the challenge and leave the visitors 19 runs short.