TABLE-TOPPING Stow-on-the-Wold took the Div One honours in the SweetFuels CDCA league this week with an emphatic win at Williamstrip.

The visitors batted first and their uncertain start simply hastened the beginning of a dominant partnership between Dan Smith (116) and David Nieman (102no). A late flurry by Ben Close (52no) took the game beyond Williamstrip and propelled Stow to a mammoth 343-4.

All seven of the home bowlers ended up with sorry-looking figures.

After tea a shell-shocked Williamstrip started well enough with a decent partnership between Mike Godwin (35) and Chip Lewis (30). However, once this partnership was broken the floodgates opened as wickets fell steadily and the innings petered out to 120 all out. The most successful bowler was George Plumb with 3-9 off his five overs.

Another comfortable win was recorded at Beechwalk where hosts Chedworth outplayed Poulton II.

Once again it was Jamie Lait who set the tone with a second consecutive blistering century scoring 108 off only 69 balls to take his league aggregate to 293 for the season to date.

Lait’s dominance was demonstrated by the fact that he scored 108 of the opening 139 partnership. A succession of batsmen then came and went, scoring around a run per ball while at the other end the anchor role was taken to extremes by opener Darryl Drinkwater (50no) who carried his bat as his team recorded 240-6 in their 40 overs.

After the break a decent second-wicket partnership of 70 between Joe Gardiner (55 off 29 balls) and Josh Grey (53no) kept the visitors interested. However, the next wicket prompted a collapse led by John Watson (5-22) which saw the visitors reach only 120 all out to lose by 105 runs.

The upset of the day was provided by Sherston Magna who overcame champions Adlestrop in a low-scoring game at Pinkney Park.

Having been asked to bat, the hosts scored a modest 120 all out. Normally this target would have proved to be straightforward for Adlestrop but the Sherston bowlers proved to be a handful and bowled the 10-man visitors out for only 78.

On a good track at Notgrove, hosts NATS posted a moderate 154 all out after electing to bat.

Bob Phillips (56) top-scored with good support from the lower order. For the visitors opener Andy Lea took 3-42 and was well supported by tight spells from Ken Lawson (2-31) and Mike Mabbatt (2-25).

Chasing an average target the visitors batted steadily and although wickets fell they never looked in danger of losing. Darren Fisher (50*) finished the game after a platform had been set by openers Danny Lloyd (27) and Ayan Ghosh (29).

In a tight, low-scoring game at Barnsley Park 10-man visitors Oakridge posted 100 all out thanks mainly to 49 from Mark Robbins. The damage was done by skipper Ed Latter (4-19) and Qasim Ali (3-31).

After tea a couple of early wickets checked the Barnsley reply but steady batting from Andrew Parffrey (21) and Fahad Saeed (26) put the hosts in a strong position.

However, a needless run-out precipitated a collapse with Iain Taylor (4-4) cleaning up the tail to leave the hosts 12 runs short on 89 all out.