Burnham one win from Thames Valley League glory after crushing Boyne Hill

Burnham have overcome the first of two massive hurdles in their bid to be crowned Thames Valley League Division 1 champions and claim promotion back to the Home Counties League.

Burnham have been on a bit of a roller-coaster ride in the past few seasons, having fallen out of the top minor counties league and into the second step of the Thames Valley league, however, captain Adnan Shabbir has overseen an impressive revival that could see its next milestone at Amersham on Saturday.

Should Burnham claim victory, they’ll be crowned champions in their first season back at the top level, having only been promoted from Division 2 last season.

They have one big hurdle in front of them, in the form of third placed Amersham - whose own form in recent weeks matches the best of any side in the division.

Second placed Ickenham are the only side that can stop them from taking the title now and their 61-run win over relegated Marlow means they’re 12 points adrift going into their final match at seventh placed Eversley.

Should they win, and Shabbir’s side slip up at Amersham, they’ll probably take the crown by a handful of points and with it promotion to Home Counties Cricket.

That would be harsh on Burnham, who’ve led the way for much of the campaign, however, Ickenham have held their nerve in recent matches to stick with them while other rivals have fallen away.

Having lost to Boyne Hill earlier in the campaign, Burnham were far from certainties in Saturday’s clash at the Memorial Ground.

Having won the toss and elected to bat, they put on a decent score of 232-all out from 47.4 overs with openers Moaaz Ajaz (61) and Osman Ilyas (35) sharing a stand of 89 for the first wicket. That partnership set them on their way to a defendable total and Gurveer Singh added 43 useful runs further down to the order to heap the pressure onto Hill’s batsmen.

With rainfall interrupting play. Hill were given a revised target of 186 from 24.5 overs and this they fell well short of, in part due to an exceptional and miserly bowling display from their hosts.

Sajid Ali (19) was Boyne Hill’s top scorer as Usman Mughal (3-19), Gurveer Singh (2-34). Osman Ilyas (1-10) and Zain Ishaq (1-15) turned the screw and ramped up the pressure. In the end they succumbed rather meekly to defeat, finishing on 78-7 in 24.5 overs.

Having still been in the title race until a few weeks ago, Boyne Hill have lost their last three matches to fall to fifth in the table. They finish their season at home to Henley 2nds on Saturday. Victory will ensure they finish fifth although there's still a chance they could nip above Tring Park to finish fourth. 

The other game of note from a title perspective was Ickenham’s home match with Marlow at Oak Avenue, which resulted in a comfortable win for the hosts.

Having been put into bat, Ickenham scored 278-all out from 44.4 overs with Marlow falling well short of their revised target of 147 from 25 overs. Finding runs hard to come by as Mac Jenkins took 2-28, they finished on 85-4.