FINCHAMPSTEAD slumped to a seven-wicket Home Counties Premier League Division One defeat at the hands of Horspath on Saturday after a disappointing performance, particularly in the bowling and fielding departments, writes Dave Wright.

Asked to bat first in good conditions, Shiv Jindal and Greg Smith put on 49 in 11 overs with the latter first to depart, caught behind for 16.

Jindal was bowled for 29 to give Daryll Brown his second wicket of the game.

Finches have relied heavily on skipper Dan Lincoln in the opening weeks of the season, but he had his first failure, making only seven to leave his side 62-3.

Tommie Predgen was stumped for 17 and when Simon Bell was bowled for six, the hosts had lost half their side with only 83 on the board.

A workmanlike 50-run partnership developed between Josh Lincoln and Ryan Quinn to bring Finches back into the match, but it came to an end when the former was unluckily run out for 39 at the bowler's end after Quinn had returned a fierce drive.

Quinn also saw Darren Augustus trapped lbw for 15 and Rehan Akram caught for two, leaving the total on 174-8.

Young Quinn continued to push the score along and remained 59 not out off 76 balls, while James Woodford was on 12 when the innings closed at 214-8 from their 50 overs.

In the third over, Akram bowled Horspath opener Tim Coleman for seven, but the visitors settled in well with Rob Eason and Mark Skelton taking the total to 87 before the second wicket fell in the 24th over with Josh Lincoln trapping Skelton (42) lbw, making it 87-2.

Josh (2-44) also bowled James Fitzjohn for 12, which left the visitors requiring 107 to win at five runs an over.

But some indifferent bowling and dropped catches led to Horspath cruising to their first league win of the season at 217-3 in the 46th over with Eason 69 not out off 134 balls and Brown making 64 off just 37 after striking two sixes and eight fours.

Finchampstead travel to Henley this Saturday.

Skipper Dan Lincoln is likely to make a change or two, saying: “We have players available who were not on Saturday, so I will have more to select from as usual.”

Finchampstead met with mixed fortunes in the HCPL T20 competition they hosted on Monday.

In their first match, they scored 205-3 (Greg Smith 97no, Andy House 62) to defeat Oxford (154; Jamie Woodford 3-30) by 51 runs.

But they later lost by two runs to Slough, the visitors recovering from 16-4 to post 148-8 with Rehan Akram taking 4-17.

In a nail-biting finish, Finch replied with 146-9 (Dan Lincoln 64no) after managing only four runs and losing two wickets in the final over.

While the 2nds were without a Thames Valley League Division 2a fixture, Finch 3rds lost by 62 runs in Division 3a, being rolled over for 105 (Matt Bell 35no) in reply to Falkland 2nds' 167-9.

There was a seven-wicket win for Finchampstead 4ths in Division 6b, dismissing Burnham 4ths for 149 (Liam Bulteel 3-13) and reaching their target for the loss of just three wickets with 13 overs to spare, Kartic Kanthi finishing 72 not out.

Hosting Reading 4ths in Division 9a, Finchampstead 5ths made 227-4 with Matt Rowley (100no) bringing up his maiden century with a six.

Joe Sheldon finished unbeaten on 57 not out in their 54-run victory.