CHESS VALLEY LEAGUE DIVISION FOUR
BRENTHAM 204
LONDON MACCABI VALE 205-5
LMV WON BY 5 WICKETS
LMV maintained their 100 per cent start to the 2015 Chess Valley campaign with a hard-fought victory at Brentham CC in Ealing.
Vale quickly had Brentham in trouble, with both openers going for ducks, Steve Allweis inducing a nick behind to Avi Schwarz, and Eddie Davis finding a leading edge which was pouched by Neil Lederman - the first of three catches the LMV skipper would take.
With Davis one of the walking wounded that Vale were playing with, he was soon replaced by Joseph Greenwall-Cohen, who also picked up a wicket, with Davis the catcher this time.
Three down with the game barely begun, Brentham could have subsided, but the Australian overseas Scott Aufderheide batted with aggression and intelligence for a half century, before being bowled through his legs by Grant Reingold's first delivery.
The resistance was continued by the rest of the Brentham middle order with some obduracy mixed with poor balls, and a lightning quick outfield leading to a reasonable total.
Reingold picked up his second wicket when Neil Lederman swooped at mid-wicket to take a brilliant one-handed catch. Allweis returned, now bowling left-arm spin, and was effective, picking up three of the next four wickets to fall, and there were wickets for Lederman and Adam Spooner, thanks to good catching in the deep from Reingold and Greenwall-Cohen.
After tea, LMV openers Danny Caro and Adam Spooner feasted on the Brentham seamers, racing to 80-0 in 13 overs before the spinners put the brakes on. Both were severe on anything short, with some cracking drives sprinkled in, and an effortless straight six from Spooner.
Their partnership was eventually ended on 95, Spooner caught off off-spinner Shah. Reingold, Mark Landau and Joseph Greenwall-Cohen all came and went fairly quickly, providing leg-spinner Desai with three wickets, and with Caro fifth out for a very well made 66 (10 x 4) with the score on 140, the game was very much in the balance.
LMV required 65 from 70 balls, which with the ball turning prodigiously, should have been extremely difficult. Instead Alex Haffner and Lederman played beautifully, rotating the strike, running well between the wickets, and striking the odd boundary, though some fielding errors definitely aided the cause.
With three overs remaining 15 runs were still required, but the pair remained calm, and Lederman struck the winning boundary with six balls to spare.
This was a terrific win for LMVCC and shows they have the quality to mount a challenge in the Chess Valley League this season.
