WITH just one week to go the Sweetfuels CDCA Division One title race is going to the wire.

The top two teams, Barnsley Beeches and Avening & Cherington, play each other at Cherington Park on Saturday in a title decider.

At the other end of the table the fight to avoid the second relegation slot is also in the balance with second-bottom Stow-on-the-Wold visiting third-bottom NATS on Saturday.

Barnsley Beeches leap-frogged their rivals at the weekend to take top spot with a comfortable home win against Sherston Magna.

After winning the toss and inserting the opposition Barnsley struck early with two quick wickets from Bobby Denney (3-32). Chris Lovell (32) provided a solid riposte and with Ben Dickenson (24) built a platform. The introduction of Andrew Coulter (3-16) induced mistakes and the collapse was consolidated by skipper Ed Latter (2-20) who cleaned up the tail.

The Sherston total of 143 all out was below par and this was put into perspective by a solid opening partnership between Rob Howard (45) and Andrew Parffrey (29). Three quick wickets from James Harmer (3-17) brought the visitors some cheer but Fahad Saeed (35) soon finished proceedings as the hosts reached 147-5 with more than 13 overs to spare.

At Cherington Park the depleted hosts soon found themselves batting against a decent Cricklade attack. A good partnership involving Stewart Hudd (32) followed by a nice innings from Steve Ennis (40) gave the hosts a chance to set a challenging target. However fine bowling from Darren Fisher (4-33) and Mike Mabbatt (3-33) started the rot and the innings petered out to 135 all out.

Without regular opener Danny Lloyd Cricklade soon lost a couple of early wickets but a fine partnership between Tom Davies (49) and man of the match Darren Fisher (53*) put the visitors in a comfortable position. Despite a flurry of wickets to S Milsom (3-31), Cricklade eased to a comfortable victory on 136-5 in the 27th over.

Oaksey finished off their nomadic season with a good “home” win at Oakridge. An excellent start from prolific Oakridge openers Martin Smith (87) and Mark Robbins (26) had Oaksey worried. However, the introduction of the wily spin of veteran Phil Biggs (5-28) turned things around and restricted Oakridge to 175-8 off their 40 overs.

A solid opening partnership of 45 gave the Oaksey reply a kick-start but Richard Minchin (2-31) bowled well to restrict the run-rate. The match-winning partnership of 84 was between Patrick Lawrence (51*) with his first league 50 for Oaksey and Dan Bye (41).

Despite two late wickets from Byron Williams (2-48) Oaksey ran out comfortable winners on 179-4.