Binfield Cricket Club's 1st XI won by four wickets away at Thatcham Town CC on Saturday 11 July in Thames Valley Cricket League Division 2A, Mac Dsouza's superb 95 and an unbeaten 31-ball fifty from Sam Negus carrying Binfield to 266 for 6 in reply to Thatcham's 260 for 7, a result that keeps the league leaders top of the table with 26 more points in the bank.

There are chases a side wins with the bat, and there are chases a side wins with sheer nerve; this one, on a hot and blustery afternoon at Thatcham, needed both. Binfield put the hosts in and were made to work every inch for it. Simon Lewis (53) and Ben Denton-Powell (70) added 113 for the second wicket, Jack Young drove handsomely for 71, and although Jack Collett kept pegging away for a well-earned 3 for 71 from his fourteen overs - with Dylan Wood positively thrifty at the other end, seven overs for just 22 - Thatcham Town closed on a meaty 260 for 7 from their 52 overs.

Sam Negus · 51 not out

The reply was built on Mac Dsouza, who batted quite beautifully for 95 before falling agonisingly short of three figures, with Chris Morgan's busy 46 and Oliver Lovegrove's 30 keeping the scoreboard honest. Even so, the target was still a distant thing when Sam Negus arrived at number six - and what followed was the innings of the day. Fifty not out, reached from just 31 deliveries according to the Play-Cricket match clip, four fours and a six in it, and the chase suddenly had wings. Elliot Coggins (13 not out) kept him gallant company as Binfield eased home at 266 for 6 in the 48th over.

The worm graph tells you just how fine a contest it was: the two lines run locked together virtually the whole way, neither side able to shake the other, before Binfield's at last noses past at the very death. One decent Thatcham over at the end and it might have read very differently - which is precisely why the visitors will treasure it.

So the 1st XI remain top of Division 2A, now 209 points to Theale and Tilehurst's 191 - the same Theale and Tilehurst who beat Sulhamstead & Ufton by seven wickets on Saturday, while Aldershot edged Wargrave by three wickets, Kidmore End brushed White Waltham aside by ten and Purley on Thames drew with Peppard Stoke Row. Warm thanks to umpire David Cooper and scorer Peter Thorne, who had a long, hot day of it. Thatcham, generous hosts and stern opponents, made Binfield earn the lot - and the long road home was all the merrier for it.