Despite the previous days rainfall,  the pitch  at Chesham looked in fine fettle, but  perhaps aware of hidden dangers, Beds won the toss and decided to insert  Bucks.  The old adage of have a look first  perhaps  doesn’t fit  in with the current T20 philosophy of Wham Bam Heave Ho , and so we found ourselves three wickets  down before the end of the 3rd over. At 35-5 an early lunch seemed to be beckoning , but skipper Alexei Kervezee  rode to the rescue with an unbeaten 65, and aided by club colleague Ed Bragg (31), put on 61 for the 6th wicket  to help Bucks to a final score of 124-6.  The pick of the Beds bowlers was former Sussex seamer Abi Sakande who caused the early difficulties  for Bucks taking 3-11 in his first 3 overs.  

Beds skipper Harry Gouldstone (26) , together with ex Bucks player Jake Tarling (35), got the visitors off to a strong start with an opening partnership of 43,  before he fell to Conner Hadddow. One run later, Teddy Fleming, back in the side after a 2 year absence,  bowled Jamie Dunk  with his  very first ball!  Beds then made steady progress and with  solid contributions from Jake Tarling (35) and Danyaal Khalid (39) got home with three balls to spare to win by 5 wickets.   Scorecard

Bucks gained their revenge in the second match with a 33 runs victory – winning  the toss and electing to bat first. Opener Aadi Sharma, back with his native county having recently made his first-class debut for Northamptonshire,  took the opportunity to shine  with a competition-best 67 (39 balls with four sixes). He received more than useful support from both George Harvey (29) and Ross Richardson (27).  With the score on 106 Aadi was  bowled by Salkande but Harvey and Richardson took the score steadily along to 165, whereupon thy both lost their wickets in quick succession. Ed Bragg and Ryan Friend then added a further 17 runs to allow Bucks to end up with a challenging total of 182-5.  

Beds  did not get off to the start they were hoping for losing their first two wickets for 13 runs, with Tarling falling to an incredible  catch from Ryan  Friend running at speed, pouching the ball as he tumbled  just inside the  boundary rope.    Joe Johnson led Bedfordshire’s chase with an aggressive 62 from 38 balls but slow left-armer Teddy Fleming, checked their progress as he proceeded to take 3 wickets  in one over – Archie Houghton was caught by Aadi off the first ball of the 11th over,  Joe Lowe followed 2 balls later caught by Archie Dodds, and Jack Fuller  became the third victim, trapped lbw off the 5th ball of the innings.  The 9th wicket partnership  of 55 between Joe Johnson and Abi Sakande kept Beds  slight hope alive but Fleming claimed his 4th wicket after  bowling  Johnson  to finish with a competition-best 4 for 29,   Last man Oscar Phillips was unluckily run out off a deflection to leave the visitors  on 149 - 33 runs short.        Scorecard game 2