Binfield Cricket Club's 2nd XI won by four wickets away at Royal Ascot CC on Saturday 22 August 2026, bowling the hosts' Saturday 1st XI out for 117 in a Thames Valley Cricket League (TVCL) Division 3A fixture - Robert Pigden taking 4 for 31 and Ben Clark 2 for 13 from seven miserly overs - before Rhys Hunt's unbeaten 34 steadied a jumpy chase to the line at 123 for 6.

There is a particular satisfaction in winning a low-scoring game of cricket, and Binfield's 2nd XI had to work for every run of it at Royal Ascot on Saturday. A hundred and seventeen was all the hosts could muster; a hundred and twenty-three was, in the end, just enough.

Having won the toss and chosen to field, Binfield struck at once. Inside the first five overs both Royal Ascot openers had gone with the score frozen on nine - Thomas Brooke without scoring, Joseph Summers for five - and the hosts never recovered the initiative. Edward Clark looked the most assured of the top order, his 34 from 39 balls carrying half of Royal Ascot's fourteen fours, but he found precious little company. Binfield's Robert Pigden did the heaviest lifting, four wickets for 31 from 7.1 overs, and the innings broke apart at 72: Ben Clark had Edward Clark lbw, and Oscar Pincus had Benjamin Moffat caught at the very same score a moment later, so 72 for 5 became 72 for 7 in the blink of an eye. Ben Clark's own figures - seven overs, three of them maidens, 13 runs, two wickets - were the most miserly of a thoroughly disciplined afternoon in the field, and Royal Ascot were all out for 117.

A target of 118 ought to have been a formality, and for a time it looked anything but. James Frost and Matt Humphrey saw off the new ball for 22, but Royal Ascot's Razwan Hanif was parsimonious in the extreme - nine overs for just 27, three of them maidens - and Binfield lost wickets in clusters. Captain Mikey Allan-Canty made the best of the middle order, 24 from 36, but he was the first of two to fall in the nineteenth over: Royal Ascot's Tamoor Hussain had him caught and then bowled Binfield's wicket-keeper Harry Field with the very next delivery, both at 68, and a comfortable chase had abruptly become 68 for 5 and distinctly fraught.

Rhys Hunt settled it. Unbeaten on 34 from 41 balls with three fours and two sixes - no one on either side made more - he added 27 for the sixth wicket with Oscar Pincus and then an unbroken 28 for the seventh with Chris Emes (13 not out) to see Binfield home at 123 for 6. Tamoor Hussain finished with 3 for 48 and a defiant 31 not out for the hosts, but a total of 117 was, on this evidence, some way short of a defendable one.

Binfield's own batting was gifted 29 extras by the Royal Ascot attack - the runs a fielding side hands over in wides, no-balls and byes, added to the batting total - very nearly a quarter of the 123 they needed, which on so tight an afternoon was no small matter. The win leaves the 2nd XI fifth in Division 3A on 259 points, with Royal Ascot, curiously, still third above them despite the defeat. A hard-earned win, and none the worse for the earning.