Binfield Cricket Club's 3rd XI won by 218 runs away at Braywood CC on Saturday 25 July 2026, posting 359 for 7 in a Thames Valley Cricket League (TVCL) Division 6B fixture on the back of Matt Humphrey's 113 and Andy Mills' 94, before Rahul Gupta's 5 for 28 dismantled Braywood CC's 2nd XI for 141.

My dear old things, there are afternoons when a batting side simply decides that everything is going to come off, and this was gloriously one of them. Braywood CC won the toss at their own ground, had a look at the sunshine, and invited Binfield to bat. By the time the 45th over was done Binfield had 359 for 7 on the board, and that invitation had turned into the longest afternoon of Braywood's summer.

It began patiently rather than violently. Jack Green and Matt Humphrey put on 91 for the first wicket without ever forcing the pace - Green's 27 came off 40 balls - and it was only when Green was stumped that the innings truly opened its shoulders. What followed was the passage that won the match: 145 runs for the second wicket, fully forty per cent of the entire total, Humphrey and Andy Mills batting together from 91 for 1 all the way to 236 for 2 without so much as a stumble.

Humphrey's hundred was a wonderfully complete thing - 113 from 105 balls with seventeen fours and a six, which is to say he scored very nearly two-thirds of his runs in boundaries and still gave the impression of a man in no particular hurry. Mills, at the other end, was the accelerator: 94 from 65 balls, twelve fours and two sixes, at a strike rate of 144 - and out six short of a hundred of his own. My goodness me, what a partnership to have watched.

Braywood did claw something back - Arun Verma, their captain, took three wickets including both Mills and Tom Phizackerley in the space of four deliveries, and Binfield rather wobbled from 236 for 2 to 276 for 5. But Jack Beaven and Mehul Garg then added 79 in the closing overs, Garg's 38 coming from just 21 balls with four sixes in it, the most explosive innings of the whole day. Beaven finished unbeaten on 37.

Three hundred and fifty-nine is a great many runs to chase in Division 6B, and Braywood were never remotely at the races. Sebastian Atkins bowled Riddhesh Mate with the fourth ball of the innings, Ollie Cummings had Vrajesh Patel soon after, and at 11 for 2 the afternoon had effectively been decided. Tushar Shelke and Santosh Mate rebuilt sensibly - 57 together, Mate top-scoring with 34 - but that was as close to a contest as it came.

The finishing was Rahul Gupta's, and thrifty work it was: 8 overs, two maidens, 28 runs, five wickets, all of them falling in a compact half-dozen overs during which Braywood slid from 107 for 4 to 135 for 9. His 3.50 an over was the meanest spell on either side. The worm, for those who like such things, never really wove at all - Binfield's line climbed and simply kept climbing, with none of the flat patches that betray a side in trouble.

It leaves the 3rd XI second in Division 6B on 222 points, a mere four adrift of Calcot at the summit, with the run rate of a side that fancies the chase. Braywood, ninth and gracious in a hard afternoon, will have far better days. Splendidly done indeed.