FINCHAMPSTEAD, fielding a much-changed side after losing eight of last year’s squad, suffered a 24-run defeat to Thame Town in their opening Home Counties Premier League Division One game on Saturday, writes Dave Wright.

It would have been a tighter finish had they not conceded the same number of runs in the last over of the visitors’ innings.

Prior to that 50th over, Dan Lincoln’s team had done well to contain their newly-promoted opponents.

Darren Augustus and former Sonning seamer Rehan Akram took two wickets apiece to leave the visitors 24-4.

Skipper Michael Beard and James Adams brought up the 100 in the 32nd over before the latter was caught for 46.

Beard then received good support from Hassam Mushtaq (21), but it looked as though the Finch attack had done a good job as Thame had only 155 on the board with five overs remaining.

However, Beard produced a late flurry of runs, finishing off with four sixes off Josh Lincoln to remain unbeaten on 97, leaving Thame with a respectable total of 210-7.

Augustus ended with 2-32 off 10 overs, Akram 2-24 from eight and Josh Lincoln 2-66 off 10.

Finchampstead also made a poor start to their reply, quickly losing Andrew House (4) and Russell Lane for one.

Greg Smith and Dan Lincoln took the total to 73 in the 15th over, when Smith fell for 36.

The hosts, however, then became tied down by the Thame spinners who were finding plenty of turn in the wicket, but they reached 94-4 at the mid-point of the innings, leaving the game evenly poised.

Finch slipped to 105-7 as they lost three wickets to Gamindu Kanishka, but Lincoln and Augustus added 49 in eight overs to keep their side in the hunt.

They needed 53 off the last five overs and luck seemed to be on their side with Augustus twice being dropped close to the boundary rope.

However, Lincoln wasn’t so fortunate, playing on to Kanishka (4-27 off 10) to end his innings at 73 and Finch went on to finish on 186-9, with Augustus remaining unbeaten on 45.

Lincoln commented: “They (Thame) had four good spinners and bowled well.

“I tried to make my innings last for as long as possible and wait for one big over, but it didn’t quite materialise.

“The wicket was very difficult to play on batting second and I would have preferred to have batted first.”

The new skipper felt there were plenty of positives to come out of the game, commenting: “Rehan bowled really well and our ground fielding was superb, we must have saved 25 to 30 runs.

“It was the first time the team had been out and they will have learned from the experience. It was a bit of a baptism of fire for some.”

This coming Saturday, Finchampstead are away to the other promoted side, last season’s Division Two champions Aston Rowant.

Finchampstead 2nds (93) endured a nightmare start to their Thames Valley League Division 2b campaign, going down by 304 runs to Aldershot (397-5).

In Division 3a, Finchampstead 3rds (120) were also thrashed, losing by 179 runs to Harefield 2nds (299-3).

Finchampstead 4ths (190-7) lost by seven wickets to Binfield 2nds (191-3), Steve Jeffrey’s unbeaten 112 helping his side ease to victory.

The game between Finchampstead 5ths and Yateley 3rds was cancelled due to the poor weather during pre-season, meaning a pitch could not be prepared.