Buscot Park entered the newly formed National Village Competition, sponsored by Haig, at its conception in 1972, and played in the Berkshire section. Their first match in the competition produced a victory at local rivals Letcombe. Their most successful campaign was in the very hot summer of 1976. After beating Donnington in the County semi final, Buscot Park were away to Shrivenham in the final on one of the hottest days of the year. Buscot Park restricted Shrivenham to 139-8 from their allotted 40 overs, with 25 runs coming from the final over. A cultured innings from Dave Honeywill of 85 not out saw Buscot home for the loss of only two wickets.
In the first round of the National section, Buscot Park travelled to Blackheath (Surrey), but failed to score enough runs batting first and never recovered. The game was delayed for a while when a discarded cigarette butt set the arid heathland alight, but this was quickly stamped out, and Buscot`s one chance of saving the game had gone. A large bottle of whisky, donated by the sponsors, was consumed after the match, and captain Brian Talbot fell backwards into a ditch as he said farewell to the opposing captain. Unfortunately it was dry!
The team throughout the County competition was Des Williams, Geoff Edgington, David Honeywill, Brian Talbot, Bob Deane, Peter Goodenough, Brian Barnett, Roger Williams, Dave Booth, Ian Elsdon and Maurice Smith, with Lloyd Morgan replacing Peter for the fixture at Blackheath.
Buscot Park continued to play in the Berkshire section of the competition for a number of years after the change to the county boundaries, and seemed to regularly play either Aston Rowant or Kidmore End. They were transferred to the Oxfordshire section in the 90s.
The Wiltshire League was formed in 1981, and although the Buscot Park committee were initially reluctant to play league cricket, they felt that they had no choice. Most of the Saturday friendly fixtures at that time were against sides from the Swindon area, all of whom had decided to enter the new league. Faced with losing most of their regular fixtures, Buscot Park applied to join the League at its formation, and were placed in the Division Three North. Having been top of the league for most of the season, a disappointing August saw Buscot Park finish third and narrowly miss promotion. They soon made amends and became league champions the following season, and have played in Division Two for most of the time since then. They have twice been promoted to Division One, but were relegated back to Division Two within two years on both occasions, and they will play in that division in 2008.
With an increasing membership, Buscot Park formed a Second Team in 1982 playing friendly fixtures, and they decided to join the Wiltshire League in 1984. They were placed in the newly formed Division Six which contained only six teams, but they progressed to Division Four in subsequent seasons, and will be playing in that division in 2008.
The Morse Shield was a 20 over competition organised by Swindon Cricket Club and sponsored by the Evening Advertiser who gave the matches excellent press coverage. All games were played in the evening at the County Ground, Swindon. Entry was by invitation only, and Buscot Park were unable to gain admission to the competition, being regarded as `country bumpkins` by the bigger sides. The influence of the much respected Fred Coleman, a Swindon schoolteacher and former Buscot opening batsman, eventually resulted in the club being invited to join the Morse Shield in 1969. They proved worthy competitors, reaching the final in the first three seasons.
Buscot Park were beaten by Plesseys in their first final, but went one better in 1970 when they won the trophy, beating the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, in the final under the captaincy of John Morbey. A hat trick of final appearances saw Buscot beaten by Wootton Bassett in 1971. Buscot Park went on to reach four more finals, but never managed to get their hands on the shield for a second time. Buscot lost in the final to Stratton (Cirencester) in 1973, and again finished runners up to Swindon Civil Service in 1976 and to Shrivenham the following year. Their seventh and last appearance in the final was in 1983 when they lost to Purton. The club also reached the semi final stage on two other occasions to become the Morse Shield`s most consistent side throughout the 70s.
The team which won the trophy in 1970 was Des Williams, Ian Elsdon, David Honeywill, Brian Talbot, John Morbey, Teddy Howell, Ken Allnatt, Tony Allnatt, Graham Frape, Tom Newman and Maurice Smith. Two regular players were unavailable. Francis Cox was on holiday, and left handed opening batsman, Geoff Edgington, was unable to play because of a hand injury. In an attempt to confuse the opposition, the only other left hander, Ian Elsdon, was promoted from number 10 to open the innings. The illusion did not last long