Berkshire suffered their first Championship defeat in four years when losing to Wiltshire by eight wickets at Henley this week.
They made 295 on Sunday with Henley’s Charlie Dunnett hitting 110 off 162 balls. There were also useful contributions from James Isbell, with 62, and skipper Andy Rishton, 47.
The visitors replied with 364, which included 158 off 238 balls from Jack Mynott, to give them a useful first-innings lead of 69.
Second time around, Berkshire reached a promising 73 for two but slumped to 98 for eight, and they were all out for a very disappointing 147, with Euan Woods and the not-out Toby Greatwood both making 28.
The damage was caused by off-spinner Joe King, who took 5-67, and seamer Sam Freestone with 4-53.
Wiltshire were left needing 79, and they cruised home off the first ball of the 16th over – hit for six by skipper Ed Young – for the loss of openers Mynott (25) and Cyrus Shafi (23).
Wiltshire’s last Championship victory over Berkshire came in 2014 at the Falkland club when King took eight wickets in the match.
The defeat sees Berkshire drop to fourth place in the Western Division One standings with 42 points, behind Devon with 58, Oxfordshire with 56 and Wiltshire on 52.
Oxon have completed their fixtures, while this Sunday Berkshire travel to Eastnor to face bottom-of-the-table Herefordshire, and Wilts host Devon at Salisbury.
It looked possible that Herefordshire would beat Oxon at Thame this week when they led by 171 runs after the first innings, but Oxon bounced back by making 492-9 declared in the second innings and then dismissing their visitors for 164 to seal a 157-run victory.
Berkshire and Staffordshire, two previous winners of the National Counties T20 competition, have been kept apart in the semi-finals of this season’s Finals Day at Wormsley on Sunday, August 30. Staffordshire, who won the competition in 2023, will face Bedfordshire in the first semi-final at 10am, while Berkshire, who beat Cheshire in the 2018 final at Wormsley, will take on Devon in the second match of the day at 1pm.
The two semi-final winners will then meet in the final at 4pm.
By Dave Wright
