WITH the final top and bottom positions already decided the final Saturday of the CDCA Division One season was about playing for pride.

At the lovely Englands ground, visitors Oakridge won the toss and chose first use of an excellent surface. This proved to be a wise decision as openers Mark Robbins (131no) and Martin Smith (136no) ran the Poulton fielders ragged with an outstanding unbeaten opening partnership of 283.

This should have come as no surprise since Smith in particular has been in prolific form of late scoring more than 300 runs in his last three innings, all unbeaten, to end the season with an aggregate of 633 runs at an average of 105.5.

A shell-shocked Poulton lost wickets regularly as they collapsed to 72 all out against some excellent bowling from Richard Minchin (10-3-27-5).

At Southam, by the Thames in Cricklade, visitors Sherston Magna were invited to bat, got off to a solid start and looked like putting together a challenging total.

Everything changed after the introduction to the Cricklade attack of Darren Fisher (5-26) who bowled 10 mean overs and left the Sherston batting in tatters.

A battling knock from Ed Reed (38) to add to the earlier effort from Andy Jarvis (32) left Sherston to close on a competitive 175 all out.

In reply, hosts Cricklade got off to a poor start by losing three quick wickets.

J Walters (33) stemmed the tide for a while but when he too was a victim of an excellent opening spell from Andy Pegg (4-22) the writing was on the wall.

Enter Mike Mabbatt who decided that aggression was the way forward as he smashed the Sherston change bowlers to all parts in a match-winning knock of 78 which included eight fours and five sixes.

By the time he holed out the match was all but over and Cricklade eased to a six-wicket victory with more than five overs to spare.