CHORLEYWOOD romped into the last eight of the The Watford Observer Knockout Trophy with a nine-wicket demolition of Bushey on Tuesday, June 18.

Wood's success was built upon a disciplined bowling display that strangled the Bushey innings from the outset. The canny spin of Nick Rice brought him three of the first four wickets to fall as he returned fine figures of 3-26 to leave Bushey facing at uphill task at 40-4.

A fine caught and bowled effort from Neil Ret to dismiss the dangerous Arshad for 38 proved the key wicket and once he was removed, Mike Oldham picked up his second wicket and Stuart Thompson, in a rare appearance with the ball, claimed two late scalps as Bushey ended on 119-9

Wood, whose batting line-up was far from at full strength, made a solid start courtesy of an opening stand of 66 between Thompson (23 not out) and Paul Downing (29) before the latter became the only wicket to fall, caught by Khalid Mahmood off the bowling of Saleem.

Thompson, joined by Chris Tweedie (23 not out), continued to plunder runs with ease from a wayward Bushey attack, who failed to exert any control and conceded a staggering 47 extras.

Wood cantered home in the 11th over to book a trip to Park Avenue to face West Herts, last season's beaten semi-finalists, for the second successive season.

Northwood booked their place in the semi-finals of the competition after victory in a thrilling encounter with Old Merchant Taylors.

Batting first, the Ducks Hill Road side got off to the perfect start as Brett Islip and Steve Lewis (31) put on 82 for the first wicket.

Islip in particular was superb claiming eight fours on his way to 69 from only 40 balls. Northwood maintained a high-run-rate throughout as they reached 203-5, although 57 extras certainly contributed to the cause.

However, OMT's made their intentions clear as they more than matched the required run-rate for the first six overs in reply as Johnny Walters raced to 84 from 44 balls.

Paul Knowles' introduction to the bowling attack in the seventh over made all the difference as he blitzed his way through the OMT team to claim figures of 6-36 as OMT fell short on 161-9. Northwood face the winner of Watford Town and Abbots Langley in the semi-final.

June 21, 2002 12:00