James Boden hit a maiden Cherwell League half-century and took five catches as Horspath 3rd bounced back to winning ways with a hard-fought four-wicket triumph at home to Bletchley Town in Division 3B.
Having bowled out the Bucks club for 198 after they chose to bat, the wicket-keeper/batsman played the leading role with 55 off 53 balls to set the hosts on the way to victory at 199-6.
Boden hit five fours and three sixes during a crucial fifth-wicket stand of 84 with Julius Leslie, who followed up his 52 against Aston Rowant 3rd a week earlier with a well-made 49.
It was then left to Ehsan Hussain, with an unbeaten 28 from 21 deliveries, and Luke Heritage to see Horspath home.
Earlier, Boden had impressed behind the stumps in the Bletchley innings.
His glovework helped Sammy Parker, fresh from his maiden five-wicket Cherwell haul against Rowant, to continue his good form with 4-39, while also securing dismissals for Heritage, who picked up 3-52 off 17 overs, and Dan Stanley (2-34).
Parker made the early inroads as Bletchley were reduced to 38-4 and, with Heritage and Stanley chipping in, the hosts had Bletchley 144-9 only to be frustrated by a last-wicket stand of 54 between Mohammad Aftab (41) and Idrees Butt (35no).
However, it wasn't to be enough as Horspath clinched victory to remain third ahead of Saturday's trip to Thame Town 2nd, who drew with Buckingham Town 2nd.
Horspath 4th, with a strong mix of youth allied to experience, went down by 114 runs at Division 6C leaders Haddenham.
The visitors put the table-toppers in and did well to restrict them to 194-8dec with good spells from Sifat Habibi (3-46) and Adrian Manger (3-52).
Horspath's attack stuck to their task after Abhishek Daspute (54) and Joel Cliffe (28) put on 94 for the first wicket with the pair both falling on that score.
Ali Hasham (32) and Talib Hussain (26) got Haddenham back on track, before Horspath hit back with a steady stream of wickets.
The visitors were then bowled out for 80 with captain Craig Wharton (21) top-scoring as Laurie Stevens (6-18) and Tariq Mahmood (4-29) did the damage.
Horspath are at home on Saturday to Stokenchurch 2nd, who lost to Bradenham by 87 runs.
Horspath CC would like to thank the following 2026 Player Sponsors:
Amin Rafiq (STRONG Pilates Oxford)
Asad Rafiq (STRONG Pilates Oxford)
Will Eason (Oxford Marquees)
Josh Richardson (Steve Richardson)
Tyrone Eyles (Interduct UK Ltd)
Robbie Eason (ARB UK Ltd)
Tom Coleman (RJA & SL Coleman)
Ryan Hicks (Green & Wakefield)
Ehsan Hussain (RMA Properties)
Tom Nichols (Savona Foodservice)
Josh Cummings (Gardiners Opticians)