Binfield Cricket Club's 2nd XI won by 69 runs at home on Saturday 15 August 2026, posting 318 for 8 in a Thames Valley Cricket League (TVCL) Division 3A fixture on the back of half-centuries from Matt Humphrey, Dan Humphrey and a blistering 64 from 40 balls by captain Mikey Allan-Canty, before restricting Boyne Hill CC's 2nd XI to 249 for 9.

My dear old things, three hundred and eighteen. Not since goodness knows when has a Binfield scoreboard looked quite so pleased with itself, and it took a first-class rescue act from Boyne Hill even to make the afternoon a contest.

It was built, as the very best big totals are, in two quite different registers. First the patient one: Matt Humphrey and Dan Humphrey - 60 from 68 balls and 57 from 59 - put on 88 together for the second wicket, the pair of them collecting seventeen fours between them and never once looking rushed. Boyne Hill's Vedant Sonar prised both out within three overs of each other, 134 for 2 becoming 150 for 3, and for a moment the innings paused for breath.

Then came the other register entirely. Mikey Allan-Canty, Binfield's captain, made 64 from 40 balls at a strike rate of 160 - eight fours and a six, thirty-eight of his runs in boundaries - and in the company of Oliver Lovegrove (34 from 33) added 66 for the fourth wicket that turned a very good total into a formidable one. Rob Pigden then signed the innings off in the most agreeable manner imaginable, 18 not out from ten balls with two sixes off the final over, hoisting Binfield from 304 for 8 to 318.

Boyne Hill's reply began disastrously and then, to their great credit, refused to end. Binfield's Rob Pigden struck twice inside the first eight overs, and in the eleventh his team-mate Jack Beaven dismissed Donald Pike and Atir Khan without a run between them; Pigden returned in the twelfth to remove Ben Wilson and the visitors were 54 for 5, three wickets down for two runs, chasing 319. What followed was the best cricket of the day from either side: Shafiq Khan, 76 from 66 balls with thirteen fours and not a six among them, and Yusuf Arshad, 28 from a stubborn 59, added 107 for the sixth wicket and dragged the innings from a shambles to something like respectability.

It was never quite enough, and Binfield's worm sat above Boyne Hill's at every stage of the comparison - the visitors' line going almost flat through that overs eleven-to-twelve cluster and never afterwards recovering the ground. Binfield's Ollie Cummings was the most economical bowler of the afternoon, eight overs for 23 with two of them maidens, meaning not a run came off them, and he took two wickets in the 43rd over to end the resistance. Qamer Ali's unbeaten 50 carried Boyne Hill past 240 with a good deal of dignity. Umpires Paul Morgan and David Knight had the sort of long, hot day in the middle that deserves a very cold drink afterwards. A marvellous day with the bat.