Sweetfuels CDCA Div Two

Fairford II 114 all out; North Cerney 173-7

NORTH CERNEY recorded a well-deserved victory against a very young and inexperienced Fairford team.

Asked to bat first, visitors North Cerney got off to a brisk start before the introduction of Colin Denness to the bowling attack brought pressure to bear and his 10 overs resulted in figures of 3-25.

Then opening bowler Oliver Holland, who took an exceptional catch on the deep square leg boundary, returned to snap up two quick wickets, leaving Chris Thring (23*) and Ollie Whitaker (20*) to push the score to a challenging 173-7 off 40 overs with their unbroken eighth-wicket partnership.

A Saunders top-scored for North Cerney with 35.

Fairford’s response was cautious to start with and suffered a set-back when Richard Cowley fell for 21 just as it looked like he was hitting form.

That left skipper Simon Embleton-Smith (55) to play something of a lone hand as wickets fell regularly, with no other batsman reaching double figures.

Whitaker finished a fine all-round display by bagging 3-24 and Davy Jones took 4-22 to put in his locker.