Cheshire up and running with 98 run win over Cambs

(Left - Henry Murray, right - Isaac Brooks)

KO Trophy Group 1, Peterborough Town CC

Cheshire 325-7 (50), Cambridgeshire 227 (40.2), Cheshire won by 98 runs

Scorecard    Video

Cheshire got their 2026 KO Trophy campaign  up and running in style with an emphatic 98 run over Cambridgeshire at Peterborough.

Henry Murray hit a stlish, unbeaten hundred in Cheshire's 325-7 , Dan Newton made 74 and Alex Money 55. Debutant Isaac Brooks then took 4-28, and Dan Wilson 4-59  as the hosts were reduced to 227 with the Cheshire spinners accounting for all ten wickets.

Sam Perry's side included two debutants . As well as Brooks, Didsbury's Alex Young opened the bowling.

Having been put into bat, Perry and Newton wasted little time in setting about the home attack, Newton blasting 12 fours and two 6s in his 74.

Money's 55 - following a club hundred 24 hours earlier - continued the charge and although the innings slowed up in the final overs, 325-7 felt competitive. Murray's second Cheshire ton came from the last ball of the innings with 15 boundaries to his name (13/2). Ben Claydon was pick of the home bowlers with 3-47.

The Cambridgeshire reply gathered momentum early on with Henry Wilson (55) and Ben Saunders (29) putting on 74 before Brooks got the breakthrough. Harry Dearden completed the trio of succesful Cheshire spinners taking  2-58 as Cheshire got home by an impressive 98 runs despite Lee Thomason's mid order resistance (55).

It's back to back home games for Cheshire next as they face Suffolk at Toft (Sunday 3 May) and Shropshire at Oxton a day later on Bank Holiday Monday. Their final group game sees them take on Cumbria at Keswick (17 May).

Cheshire side : Sam Perry (Capt - Alderley Edge), Dan Newton (Lindow), Alex Money (Chester Boughton Hall), Freddie Vaughan-Hawkins (wk -Timperley), Harry Dearden (Woodbank), Henry Murray (Toft), Kevin Carroll (Brooklands), Henry Dobson (Oxton), Dan Wilson (Northern), Isaac Brooks (Lindow), Alex Young (Didsbury) 12th man Liam Clorely (Toft).