Bank House Glos CCL Div Two
Poulton 276-7
Gloucester City Winget II 95 all out
POULTON made it five wins in a row to climb up to second place in the GCCL Division Two with a resounding win over bottom-placed Gloucester City Winget 2nds.

For the third week in a row Poulton won the toss and decided to bat, but Mark Burton and Scott Meredith found scoring difficult in the first six overs before Burton (7) was spectacularly run out by Ethan Cresswell.

Sam Denning joined Meredith and the partnership followed the same pattern; tight bowling from the Winget attack kept Poulton under wraps before Denning was clean bowled for seven by Sohail Khan to leave Poulton at 33-2.

Jody Lawrence and Meredith rebuilt the innings well for Poulton, putting on 62 for the third wicket before Meredith was caught for 40.

Captain Ross Cutts then hit a nice 17 before holing out in the deep off the bowling of Oliver James to leave Poulton handily placed at 141-4 with 15 overs left.

Jon Maunder immediately hit the straps and in tandem with Lawrence seized control of the game, thanks to a superb partnership of 69 in nine overs which propelled Poulton up to the 200 mark before both were dismissed in the space of two overs.

Maunder fell for a brisk 41 and Lawrence was sharply stumped down the leg side for 59. Robbie James' inventive 33 not out and brief cameos from Jack Morris and John Watson saw Poulton take the game away from their visitors and finish on 276-7.

Poulton's opening bowlers Charlie Buse (2-23) and James Newman (1-29) both struck early to leave Gloucester on 18-2.

A fighting innings from Haroon Shahzad (30), in partnership with Joe Whiting, saw Gloucester past 50 unscathed before Buse claimed the key wicket of Shahzad, having him caught behind by Maunder for 30.

After that is was the Jack Morris show; he steamed in with express pace and deadly accuracy to blow away the rest of the Gloucester order. Morris claimed career best figures of 6-8 from 6.5 overs, his last four wickets coming without conceding a run.

Only skipper Khan reached double figures, while Denning claimed the other wicket for Poulton to see Gloucester skittled for 95.

Poulton will be full of confidence ahead of this weekend's clash against top-of-the-table Cam.