Old Albanians remain second in the standings despite a two-wicket loss to Ickleford on Saturday.

OAs actually had a good game with bat and ball as five batsmen scored 30 or more runs and none of the bowlers were particularly expensive. But a knock of 92 from Ickleford opener Jack Edwards was enough to set them up for the victory.

Having been put into bat, Alex Goldstone (32) got OAs off to a good start. He followed his fellow opener Tom Lincoln (12) to the clubhouse as they reached 71-2. The middle order of Robert Goldstone (38), Jack Reynolds (31), Zahid Khan (30) and Usman Farooq Malik (32) all contributed as OAs reached 202-6 and declared in the 50th over.

In reply, Ickleford lost John Hilliard (6) early but Edwards and took the score to 182 before becoming the fifth wicket to fall. Number three James Robinson added a 43 and Mark Schumann put 23 runs on the board.

None of the lower middle and tail order batsmen impressive, failing to reach double figures, but they did just enough to pass OAs’ total in the 50th over.

Naseer Ahmed and Mozammal Hayat shared the bowling honours, taking two wickets each.